One third of millennials face renting for their whole lives and will never own a home

Up to a third of young people face renting homes for their entire lives, according to a report out today from the Resolution Foundation.

It said a generation of young people, those born between 1980 and 1996, face the prospect of never owning their own home, and said tax reforms are needed to discourage multiple home ownerships, as well as support for councils to get more affordable homes built.

Read more: Mapped: Average house prices in London and how they’ve changed over a year

Private renting has surged in recent decades, and at age 30, four in 10 millennials now rent.

The Resolution Foundation said that is double the rate for generation X and four times that for baby boomers at the same age, reflecting that millennials’ access to social housing has fallen as fast as their home ownership rates.

The report added that even if home ownership accelerates rapidly, millennials will never experience the levels recorded for the baby boomers.

A record 1.8m families with children rent privately, the report adds, up from 600,000 some 15 years ago.

Lindsay Judge, senior policy analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said:

Britain’s housing problems have developed into a full-blown crisis over recent decades and young people are bearing the brunt – paying a record share of their income on housing in return for living in smaller, rented accommodation.

While there have been some steps recently to support housebuilding and first time buyers, up to a third of millennials still face the prospect of renting from cradle to grave.

“If we want to tackle Britain’s ‘here and now’ housing crisis we have to improve conditions for the millions of families living in private rented accommodation. That means raising standards and reducing the risks associating with renting through tenancy reform and light touch rent stabilisation,” Judge added.

Read more: Is renting the new norm for the younger generation in London?