Housing Studies Association conference paper Assessing the growth of the private rented sector:...
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Transcript of Housing Studies Association conference paper Assessing the growth of the private rented sector:...
Housing Studies Association conference paper
Assessing the growth of the private rented sector: choice versus constraints
Paul Sissons and Donald Houston16th April 2014
Outline
• Aims and research questions
• The scale of growth in the PRS
• Perspectives on PRS growth
• Tenure transitions
• A changing PRS?
• Tenant satisfaction in the PRS
• Next steps
Research questions
Significant growth of the PRS raises a number of questions about the drivers of growth, experiences of the tenure and policy for the sector. Our focus includes:
• How have the characteristics of tenants in the sector changed?
• How have tenants’ experiences of the sector changed?
• Does the growth of the sector appear to be driven by choice or constraint?
A growing private rented sector
Source: Office for National Statistics reporting of Labour Force Survey 1980-2008; English Housing Survey 2008-9 onwards
Characteristics of the PRS
• PRS plays a number of different roles:• Relatively affordable• Immediate access• Rent/partial rent covered by state benefit for tenants on low income• Facilitates spatial mobility• People: Students; Mobile workers; Aspiring homeowners;
Older people• Places: Cities; Remoter rural districts
Perspectives on PRS growth in 1990s
• 1991-2001 PRS growth in…• Districts: Cities; Mining & Manufacturing• Regions: Northwest; West Midlands; Wales• Economic position: Permanently sick; Students• Household types: Lone parents; Multifamily households
• Cities, south and east:• Substituting for homeownership• Mobile workers and students
• Less prosperous districts• Substituting for social renting• Economically inactive
The geography of the PRS: I
The geography of the PRS: II
Flows out of the PRS by destination: 1991-2008
(Source: Tenure moves - three-year rolling average from BHPS. House prices - ONS reporting of Regulated Mortgage Survey. Adjusted using RPI)
Characteristics of PRS growth: 1991-2008
Characteristics of PRS – age: 1991-2008
Characteristics of PRS – household type: 1991-2008
Characteristics of PRS – finances: 1991-2008
Characteristics of PRS – satisfaction: 1991-2008
Emerging Findings and Conclusions
• Rapid growth in the PRS – now larger than the social rented sector• Flows from PRS- SRS decline consistently since the early 1990s• Flows to owner-occupation decline from circa 2000 onwards• Characteristics of growth in the PRS from 2001-2008 appears less distinct
than that observed in the 1990s. • The profile is less disadvantaged and most of the growth is among
those in employment• But tenants are on average getting older
• Some evidence suggests dilution of dominant tenure role in facilitating labour mobility
• Satisfaction rising; financial stress falling; move aspiration falling• Change from short to longer-term tenure?
Next steps – exploring choice/constraint
• Extension to post-recession (Understanding Society)• Comparison of short versus long-term renters• Examine the role of geography/area type post-2001• Modelling of tenure choice:
• How are inherent tenure preferences changing over time?• Does the PRS comprise two (or more) segments within it?
Thank you
References
• Ferrari, E. (2014) The Social Value of Housing in Straitened Times: the View from England. Housing Studies, in press.
• Houston, D. and Sissons, P. (2011) The Changing Geography of Privately Rented Housing in England and Wales. Urban Studies, 49(4), p.795-819.
• Hulse, K., Jones, C. and Pawson, H. (2010) Tenurial ‘competition’, tenure dynamics and the private rented sector: an international reappraisal. Journal of European Real Estate Research, 3(2), p.138-156.
• Kemp, P.A. (2011) Low-income tenants in the Private Rental Housing Market. Housing Studies, 26(7-8), p.1019-1034.