Private Rented Sector Housing Stock Expected to Exceed 5 Million Homes by 2025

After almost 20% growth in the past ten years, England’s Private Rented Sector (PRS) could exceed 5 million homes by 2025.

In the past ten years, England’s PRS has increased in size by 18.8%, from 4.1 million homes to just shy of 4.9 million.

On a regional level, the fastest growth over this time period has been seen in the South West where the PRS’s stock level has increased by 31.2% from 404,768 homes to 530,975.

The West Midlands market has grown by 25.4%, in London the market has grown by 21.7%, and in the North East, the number of PRS homes is 17.3% higher than it was a decade ago.

Based on these historic growth trends, the researcher, Ocasa has forecasted how the Private Rented Sector will perform in the future.

Taking England’s 18.8% growth over the course of a decade, it is calculated that, between today and 2025, dwelling stock totals could increase by a further 6.4%.

This is equivalent to an additional 313,906 homes which will bring the national total to just under 5.2 million.

Regionally, the most new homes are expected to be added to the PRS in London (68,336), the South East (47,500), and North West (38,075).

Meanwhile, the smallest increase in market size is forecast to come from the North East where just 13,291 new homes will be added to the Private Rented Sector by 2025.

Sales and Marketing Director at Ocasa, Jack Godby, commented:

“The government is trying to dampen the Private Rented Sector by making it less and less cost effective to purchase additional homes for investment purposes such as buy-to-let.

But there is still a huge need for rented homes in England – not every can or wants to buy their own home.

In order to ensure that there are enough good homes for those who need them, more still needs to be done to make buy-to-let more attractive for landlords.”

Table shows the growth of England’s Private Rented Sector since 2011 and forecasted growth between 2021 and 2025
Location	2011 – Dwelling stock (Rented Privately or with a job or business)	2021 – Dwelling stock (Rented Privately or with a job or business)	2025 forecast- Dwelling stock (Rented Privately or with a job or business)	Change n 2011 vs 2021	Change – 10 years ago (2011 vs 2021 latest)	Forecast change n- 2021 latest to 2025
London	872,298	1,061,586	1,129,922	189,288	21.7%	68,336
South East	631,435	737,906	785,406	106,471	16.9%	47,500
North West	505,362	591,480	629,554	86,117	17.0%	38,075
South West	404,768	530,975	565,155	126,207	31.2%	34,180
East of England	413,945	479,938	510,832	65,993	15.9%	30,894
Yorkshire and the Humber	421,513	477,029	507,736	55,516	13.2%	30,707
West Midlands region	348,613	437,065	465,200	88,453	25.4%	28,135
East Midlands	331,104	354,006	376,794	22,903	6.9%	22,788
North East	176,079	206,471	219,762	30,392	17.3%	13,291
England	4,105,117	4,876,457	5,190,362	771,340	18.8%	313,906