A mortgage lender claims there has been “an explosion” in the number of families in private rental accommodation since 2004.

At the same time, the number able to buy with a mortgage has plunged. 

The claim comes from specialist lender Perenna.

In England, the number of households with children renting has increased by 121% over the period, equating to 834,000 more families. 

As a result, there are now more than 1.5m households with children in the rental sector – a third of the entire rental market (32%).

Perenna’s analysis of the latest English Housing Survey data shows families have had to depend on it disproportionately. The increase in the number of renters without children saw a significant, but smaller 99% increase in the same time frame.

The rise in the number of families renting has far outstripped the growth of this segment of population. 

Government data reveals the number of households with children – across all tenures – has risen by just 1%. Far slower than the number of households without children (20%).

The rapid rise in families renting coincides with a drastic drop in the number of families able to buy a property with a mortgage. 

Government data shows the number of households with children owning a property with a mortgage has dropped by 803,000 (20%) in the last 20 years, from 4m, to 3.2m households.

Beyond the mortgage market, a lack of supply across other tenures has meant dwindling options available to families unable to buy over the last two decades.

In turn this has drived demand for private rented accommodation, and bolstered rental prices. 

For instance, the number of households with children in all social housing has dropped by 2% since 2004, with those in local authority accommodation falling by nearly a third (29%) since 2008 – the earliest the data recorded by the government for this tenure.