New research predicts that although the number of private tenants versus available stock will ease by 2030, there will still be more than two tenants for every available rental property.
The latest study by Zero Deposit analysed historic market data on the number of private rental homes across England, as well as the number of private tenants.
In 2023, there were over 4.9 million private rental homes in England and over 10.8 million private tenants.
This meant there were 2.19 renters for every rental property last year.
The ratio was a drop from the 2.22 seen in 2022 and below the pre-pandemic figure of 2.28 in 2019.
The research, which used an exponential smoothing forecasting model, predicts that by 2030, the number of privately rented properties is set to grow by almost 9.5% from 2023, hitting around 5.4 million.
It also expects the number of PRS tenants to reach over 11.1 million.
Consequently, Zero Deposit forecasts a ratio of 2.06 renters for every PRS property across England.
“Despite the ratio of tenants to available properties easing last year, the rental sector remains a fiercely competitive place and the imbalance between demand and supply is the driving factor that has caused rental values to spiral in recent years,” said Sam Reynolds, CEO at Zero Deposit.
“PRS stock levels are expected to continue increasing over the coming years, which should see the tenant-to-property ratio ease further, and this could be boosted by Labour’s pledge to deliver 1.5 million new homes.
“However, the intended new stock that Labour plans to deliver is largely targeted at addressing the wider housing crisis and increasing supply for homeowners.
“While some of these homes may inevitably be purchased by landlords, this increase is unlikely to address the sector’s supply-demand imbalance in a meaningful way, and we estimated that there will still be more than two tenants for every PRS home despite the predicted increase in stock levels.”
