Pensioners in rented property will double to 1m

The number of pensioners in rented accommodation will more than double to over 1m in a decade. A total of 11.5% of all retirement-age couples will be in the private rental sector by 2033, compared with 5.7% last year. That is a rise from 402,963 to 1,003,382, according to an analysis of the English Housing Survey by Hamptons. The firm said the trend risked increasing pressure on a stretched rental market, with large numbers of landlords already threatening to sell up in the face of increasing mortgage rates. Hamptons also calculated that 75% of estates of those who died in 2019 had property to hand down. It predicts that this will drop to 66% in 2030 and keep falling. The Institute for Fiscal Studies calculated that someone renting in retirement would need an average £269,000 extra on top of the £348,000 they would need to live on if they were in a home they owned with no mortgage. The Times (£)The Telegraph (£)