A BBC News report claims that increasing numbers of renters aged over 30 are moving to cheaper areas as rents have risen and and available properties have fallen. 

Using figures from the Dataoft property data consultancy, the BBC says almost half of new tenancies taken on by families earning £30,000 to £70,000 in the first six months of this year were for one or two-bed homes.

In the first half of 2020, during the period covered by the first national lockdown, 57 per cent of new tenancies signed by families on £30,000 to £70,000 a year were for homes with at least three bedrooms.

In the same period of 2023, that figure had fallen to less than 51 per cent.

Sandra Jones, managing director of Dataloft, tells the BBC: “We believe these reductions in renters’ standard of living to be the direct result of the severe supply constraint that has driven up rents. When affordability is stretched, as it is for so many today, people make trade-offs in order to stay within a budget.”

The data also shows renters over 30 years old were more likely to move to a cheaper area than a higher value one when they changed home.

Only a fifth of those from 30 to 39 would move to a higher priced area while more than a quarter would move somewhere cheaper. Among the under 30s, it was the other way around with just under a third moving to a higher rent location in the previous 12 months.

Greg Tsuman, president of ARLA Propertymark, is quoted by the BBC as saying landlords needed more incentives to stay in the sector and raise the number of private rental properties, such as changing the tax system.

“Fundamentally, the problem is that landlords are exiting the market when demand for rental properties continues to rise. Landlords are making a loss when rents are rising, and we need to address the root causes if we’re to solve this” he comments.

Dataloft took a sample of between 4,807 and 6,732 new tenancies signed by families with a household income of between £30,000 and £70,000 in each six month period between January 2020 and June 2023.