New CML research: fuzzy households, fuzzy tenures

Housing careers used to be fairly straightforward - leave home, buy first home, move up housing ladder, perhaps trade down in retirement. But the world has changed, with more people now dipping in and out of home-ownership, owning property they do not live in, or living in property they do not own. A new research article from the Council of Mortgage Lenders looks at the issues, and argues that policymakers should develop a more holistic approach to housing market issues.

The article pulls together information showing:

• As many as a fifth of first-time buyers (that is, people who are not currently home-owners) are in fact "returners" who have at some point in the past been home-owners;
• The traffic is two-way: around 15% of people moving into private renting in 2005-6 were previously home-owners;
• A significant minority of people - around 10% - own a property that is not their current home, and this is sometimes instead of rather than in addition to their current home;
• The number of second homes in England has risen by 30% over the past decade;
• Around 900,000 men and 1.2 million women are couples "living apart together", who maintain their own individual properties;
• The rise of the tenant-cum-landlord: typically younger people who cannot afford to buy a property where they work, but buy one in a cheaper area and let it, to get a foot on the property ladder.

Author Paul Samter, CML economist, concludes in the article:

"Given the considerable complexites of modern life and the increasing interactions across the tenures, perhaps it is time for the government to develop a more holistic approach to housing market issues. A good starting point would be to focus on policies delivering an adequate supply of high-quality housing, assisting the mobility of households within and between tenures and an equality of treatment for those in need regardless of their tenure."