Household profiles to property types in the rental sector

As a growing proportion of the population is living in rental property, there is keen interest in understanding the preferences and priorities of renters. We analysed properties let over the past six months in England and Wales and looked at what type of property different household types tend to choose. Over this period, 49% of properties let were flats, 28% terraced houses, 14% semi-detached and 9% detached homes.

Flats proved to be the dominant property of choice for privately renting households but particularly for singles and couples. Almost two thirds (62%) of renters living alone chose to live in a flat.

But more than a quarter of new rentals in our dataset were let to families and, unsurprisingly families are far more likely to favour houses. Two thirds of families who rented a property in the last six months chose a house.

In London, the profile of renters for all household types is much more heavily skewed to flats, which reflects the nature of the building stock in the capital – but the contrast is stark. ln London, 85% of singles, 82% of couples, 73% of sharers and 58% of families who rented in the last six months, rented flats.