New data from a survey of tenants suggests demand for the private rental sector looks set to be high for the indefinite future.

That’s because almost 30 per cent of tenants plan never to buy a home. 

The findings of the survey echoes recent data from the English Housing Survey which revealed the number of privately rented households has doubled over the past 16 years from 2m in 2000 to 4.5m in 2016. 

In London, privately rented households have risen from 13.6 per cent of all households in 2003/4 to 28.1 per cent in 2015/16.

Based on the latest research – conducted for property concierge service The Urban Collective and questioning 2,000 renters from across the UK – some 71 per cent say the prospect of renting forever would make them ‘unhappy’, with this figure rising to 84 per cent amongst Londoners.

“Fifteen years ago, renting was a stop gap until people could save enough to buy. Today, owning a home is a long-term goal and in 15 years’ time it might just be an impossible dream” explains Mayank Mathur, co-founder of The Urban Collective.