Latest English Housing Survey Results

According to the 2021-22 English Housing Survey, deposits for first time buyers was an eye-watering £43,693. The Office of National Statics have recently released the latest figures which make for interesting reading.

• The average age of first-time buyer was 34.

• The average first-time buyer deposit was a hefty £43,693.

• On average homeowners spent 22% of total household income on mortgage payments, up from 18% in 2011-12.

• Private renters (not including social housing) forked out a massive 33% of their income on rent payments.

• Just 7% of English households didn’t have internet access.

• The largest group of owner ‘types’ in England were couples with no dependent children 41%, 24% of owners were lone females households, while lone males accounted for 15%.

• Only 62% of private renters (2.8 million households) and 27% of social renters (1.1 million households) said they expect to be able to buy their own property in the future.

• Average household sizes rose from 2.2 persons to 2.3, a decrease from 2.4 in 2019-20.

• There were more first-time buyers during the 2020 lockdown than in 2021. While there were 852,000 during the first year of the pandemic, the number dropped by 100,000 the following year.

• Households with savings decreased from 68% to 64%.

• 9.3 million households were considered by the government to be ‘underoccupied’, having two or more empty spare bedrooms.

• 81% of homes had a garden or private outside space, while 13% had a shared plot.

• 99% of houses and bungalows had outside areas, compared to just 57% of flats.

• Approximately 1.8 million households had moved home in the previous 12 months. 620,000 were moving in or out of privately rented accommodation, 363,000 were new households and 361,000 were owner occupiers.

• General ‘happiness’ was on the up. The average life satisfaction score in English homes increased from 7.3 to 7.5. The score of those thinking ‘life is worthwhile’ rose from 7.6 to 7.8 and happiness danced up from 7.2 to 7.5. So it’s not all bad!