Home Ownership Rate 2026: English Housing Survey Breakdown

The detail

The English Housing Survey 2024-25 (published 4 December 2025) put owner occupation at 16.2 million households, 65% of all households in England. The rate was highest in 2003 at 71%, fell after the financial crisis to a low of 63% in 2013-14, and has been stable at 65% since 2019-20. The survey covers England only, so it is not a UK-wide rate.

The 65% splits into 36% outright owners (no mortgage) and 29% mortgagors. In 2013-14 the split was 33% outright and 31% with a mortgage, so outright owners have gained 3 percentage points and mortgagors have lost 2. The survey says the rise in outright ownership is "at least partly explained by population ageing": 62% of outright-owner households have a household reference person aged 65 or over.

Renting splits into 19% private rented (4.7 million households) and 16% social rented (4.1 million, council and housing association). The private rented share was steady at 9% to 11% through the 1980s and 1990s, has doubled since the early 2000s, and has stayed around 19% to 20% since 2013-14. The social rented sector is now the smallest tenure, after a longer-term decline that has stabilised over the last decade or so.

Tenure is strongly tied to age. Among households whose reference person is aged 16-24, 69% rent privately and 11% own; among those aged 65 or over, 79% are owner occupiers (74% outright, 5% with a mortgage) and 6% rent privately.