Home ownership is an aspiration ingrained into the British psyche. But not everyone dreams of one day having a property of their own. A growing number of mid-life renters are choosing not to buy.
Renting offers freedom and flexibility and can make better financial sense than putting down roots. The cost of paying a mortgage is now roughly the same on average as rent, according to data released last week by Hamptons International. In the south of England, renting is now typically cheaper.
People aged 35 to 44 were almost three and a half times more likely to be renting in 2017 than in 1993, according to the Office for National Statistics, and the number of 50 to 64-year-old tenants doubled between 2012 and 2022, according to the English Housing Survey. Meanwhile, the number of UK adults who own a home dropped to 64.5 per cent last year from 71 per cent 20 years ago.
Wealth & Personal Finance meets five mid-life renters who have no plans to buy.
I’ve put into a pension the cash I could have used for a deposit
Helen Hudson has always rented and revels in the variety. ‘I have never had the mindset to buy, and if I had done I would never have had such experiences,’ says the 46-year-old from Norfolk. ‘I didn’t grow up thinking it was a priority to do so.’
After renting in Newcastle and Cambridge, the past nine years have been spent across London, since she got a job working for the estate agent Savills.
She’s been able to try all types of property. ‘I love period charm – without the upkeep issues – but also the energy-efficiency of a modern property,’ says Helen, who has always rented a one-bedroom home.
Helen Hudson has always rented and revels in the variety. ‘I have never had the mindset to buy, and if I had done I would never have had such experiences,’ she says.
She started off in Sydenham, south-east London, but then went west to Chiswick, before moving to a brand-new apartment in Canning Town, east London. A Victorian conversion in Crystal Palace had the most charm. ‘It was the middle floor of a house with high ceilings, floor-to-ceiling shelving and a grand bay window. It was an excellent space for hosting guests and had a ridiculously proportioned bathroom.
‘In my late 30s my core friends were living in south-east London, so I moved to the Crystal Palace flat backing on to the park. But during the heatwave of April 2020 I decided I wanted to paddleboard every day so I worked out where I could afford to live near a river.’
She ‘adored’ three years in Teddington, south-west London, but when her landlord sold up it was her cue to try a ‘build-to-rent’ development. She now lives a few miles away in Earlsfield, paying £1,800 a month with all bills included for a flat with a shared gym and cinema room. A one-bed flat in the area typically costs £500,000, so a mortgage on 80 per cent of the value over a 25-year term (at 4.5 per cent) would cost £2,223 a month.
She would have to pay bills on top of this and gym membership – plus the conveyancing costs involved in buying a property.
‘Would I ever buy?’ ponders Helen, who saves ‘aggressively’ into a pension the money she might have used for a deposit. ‘Maybe if I met someone to build a home with, but for now I love the renting lifestyle.’
It gives my family a better quality of life
Jonathan O’Neill owned a house with his ex-wife, but is now used to renting and loves the lifestyle it offers, though found it hard to get a place that would take him and his four children, aged 16, 14 and 11-year-old twin boys, who he has at weekends.
‘When we split up six years ago, I moved into a beautiful old cottage at Christmas Common in Oxfordshire, but it was impractical and very costly to heat. I also wanted to live nearer the children in Bracknell,’ says Jonathan, 49, who works for Skanska, the construction company, in Reading.
‘Looking for a four-bedroom home, I tried lots of private landlords, but they all told me I had too many children – plus a cavapoo,’ he says. ‘Even a National Trust-owned property in Henley said no.’
Jonathan O’Neill, above, has found the ideal family arrangement by renting at the purpose-built Buckler’s Park, below
Two years ago he discovered Buckler’s Park, a purpose-built development run by Leaf Living, in Crowthorne, Bracknell Forest, where he rents a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house with a garden for £2,350 a month.
A comparable house would cost £780,000 to buy, and Jonathan thinks his monthly outgoings would be similar if he bought rather than rented. ‘It’s practical, well-connected by buses and trains, and it’s got superfast broadband,’ says Jonathan, who works from home most days. ‘Renting through a professional company is a whole different experience.’
He says he saves his money in ‘tax-efficient’ places like a Lifetime Isa and doesn’t feel he has to own. ‘I’m enjoying not being tied down anywhere through ownership. My parents have lived in the same home for 50 years but I don’t want to take on a huge unmanageable debt and generate a big inheritance tax liability.
‘The flexibility is liberating – but looking ahead my dream is retiring by the sea, at which point I might decide to buy.’
This is a better use of capital than buying
Jay Badiani has chosen to rent for lifestyle and financial reasons.
‘I am happy not to commit to buying for around ten years,’ says Jay, 39, who has children aged two and five and is divorced. ‘I want to be flexible so I can live near their schools and I want financial liquidity to invest in my business.’
Jay has used the capital from the sale of the former family home in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, to become self-employed – as an estate agent at Harding Green.
Jay Badiani has chosen to rent for lifestyle and financial reasons. ‘I am happy not to commit to buying for around ten years,’ says Jay, 39
‘It’s an opportunity to invest in my business, but it’s also better value for money.
‘I have calculated that I’m better off renting than buying the property I’m living in, if I was paying a 4.5 to 5 per cent interest rate and tying up all of my capital with a 25-35 per cent deposit.’
Jay has been renting a two-bedroom house in Battersea, south London, at £2,300 a month that would cost around £750,000 to buy.
But next week he’s moving to a two-bedroom house at £2,250 a month in Shepherd’s Bush – with a two-year contract.
‘Again, I’ve crunched the numbers and I’m better off renting than buying the £700,000 property,’ he says.
With a 25 per cent deposit, and paying an interest rate of 4.5 per cent over 25 years, he would be paying £2,917 per month – plus around £35,000 on purchase costs including stamp duty and legal expenses.
‘The quality of rental properties has improved dramatically in London. I don’t have to face the costs of a broken boiler and other ongoing costs of ownership,’ he says.
‘My investments will help offset my rental costs. Investing the £200,000 I would have paid on my deposit in a cash and stocks tracker gives me £16,000 per year, if I can make 8 per cent a year.
‘Planning long term, this is the best way of setting up myself financially.’
My career benefits from us being renters
Few people eulogise about the benefits of renting more than Ben Standen, another life-long tenant.
‘I would never have taken up all the opportunities I’ve been offered in eight different countries,’ says Ben, 44.
‘We have become used to the joys of being able to pack up and go, rather than being locked into an area and its disadvantages.’
Ben Standen is a life-long tenant. ‘I would never have taken up all the opportunities I’ve been offered in eight different countries,’ says Ben, 44.
Ben was born in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, but his ‘£10 Pom’ parents took him to Melbourne, Australia, and it was there that he started renting and met his wife, Kylie, 43, who works in childcare. They have a daughter, now 22.
His job in the mobility industry – asset management for companies such as ride-hailing firm Uber – took the family to New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Europe and then, ‘being homesick’, he headed back to the UK seven years ago.
‘We rented in Fulham and then Wembley Park, where we found out Kylie was expecting, so we looked for a more family-friendly location.’ The couple and Phineas, now two, rent a two-bedroom, two bath on the 18th floor of Coppermaker Square, nine purpose-built blocks of 1,225 flats next to Westfield Stratford, east London, for £3,300 a month.
It comes with co-working space, 25-metre pool, gym, spa, residents’ lounge and roof garden. Wellness amenities and classes are included in the rent.
‘We’d have to pay for extra for these facilities and classes if living elsewhere,’ he says.
Ben says they prize the secure, family-friendly environment.
‘We have a residents’ WhatsApp group and I’ve made friends at a pool tournament here and run mental well-being workshops.
‘Kylie volunteers to organise the community childcare: the residents have pooled together to pay for toys and she helps arrange this in the yoga room,’ says Ben, who also loves the proximity to his team West Ham’s football ground.
‘I feel we have total control over our lives, in that if we need to up sticks and move again, we can.
‘It’s a very uncertain world and we can control where we live, which we couldn’t do if we were tied down to a place by the rate on our mortgage.
‘The thought of having a huge debt right now is extremely stressful. Renting simply makes a lot more sense for us. I can only see this changing in old age when we move around less.’
I’d prefer freedom to owning a nice cottage
Rowenna Hills has never owned a home – and believes that the British are too obsessed with property ownership.
‘Having spent time in Europe, where it’s perfectly acceptable to rent long-term, I really think owning is over-rated,’ she says.
After growing up in Islington, north London, she worked in the capital but never had to buy as she lived in the family home.
Rowenna Hills has never owned a home – and believes that the British are too obsessed with property ownership
For eight years she has rented a three-bedroom cottage in Painswick, a pretty village in the Slad Valley, Gloucestershire. She pays £1,500 a month plus £400 in bills.
She runs a company, Hills & Wold Events, and organises parties and weddings in the Cotswolds but also in London and the Alps.
‘I travel around a lot and never know where I might need to be. I might end up getting a job somewhere else,’ says Rowenna, 33.
‘I have been saving up for a deposit as I hope to buy one day, but it’s not easy getting a mortgage being self-employed and single.
‘I once thought I’d like to own this cottage – it’s worth around £450,000 – but now think I would feel the pressure to stay here, despite opportunities elsewhere.’
An 80 per cent LTV mortgage on such a home at 4.5 per cent would cost £1,945 a month, so Rowenna says in the meantime she is ‘putting money into my business instead’.