A buy to let consultancy has identified those parts of the country where there’s been the biggest swing towards renting when compared to homeownership in recent years.

Sequre Property Investment analysed data on dwellings across each area of England since 2012 and found that currently, 19.5 per cent of the 24.4m dwellings across England sit within the private rental sector. 

While this has only increased one per cent since 2012, this nonetheless equates to an increase of nearly 500,000 more people living within privately rented properties across the country.

At a regional level, London is home to the highest level of private renters, accounting for 28.8 per cent of total dwellings. The capital has also seen the largest lifestyle swing towards renting with a 2.2 per cent increase since 2012.

However, this increase isn’t confined to the capital and the West Midlands has seen the second-largest increase, with the number of those reliant on rental properties increasing by 1.9 per cent since 2012.

The North East has also seen one of the largest increases at 1.5 per cent, as has the South West on 1.3 per cent.

At local authority level, both Greenwich and the City of London have seen the largest uplift in private renters, with both areas seeing the percentage of dwellings sitting within the private rental sector increase by 3.4 per cent since 2012. In fact, London accounts for eight of the top 10 increases.

Outside of the capital, Telford and Wrekin has seen the number of private rental properties increase by 1.6 per cent since 2012, with Salford also home to one of the largest increases at 1.5 per cent.

“The ever-escalating cost of homeownership, coupled with a change in lifestyle choices amongst younger generations, has seen the number of us opting to reside within the private rental sector continue to grow in recent years” explains Sequre sales director Daniel Jackson.