For all the apparent complaints about the UK’s private rental sector, it holds up well by comparison with many other countries.
The new ‘Forever Renter Global Index’, conducted by Luxo Living, analysed housing data across 39 western countries. The data covers 2017 to 2024, the most recent available.
The Forever Renter Global Index quantifies exactly where long-term renting has become most entrenched, by combining renter share, homeownership rates, rent burden, housing cost overburden, overcrowding, living space (rooms per person), and price-to-income data into a single composite score.
The United Kingdom at a glance:
| Rank | Country | Forever Renter Score /100 | Renter Share % | Homeownership % | Rent Burden % | Overburden Rate % | Overcrowding % | Rooms/Person (renters) | Price-to-Income Index (2015=100) |
| 30 | United Kingdom | 34.4 | 30.7 | 68.4 | 23.0 | 8.9 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 104.7 |
The UK’s score of 34.4 out of 100 places it 30th in the Index, and among the lowest of the nations facing the most acute homeownership pressure.
The UK records the lowest overcrowding rate (0.6%) of any country analysed, joint with New Zealand, and its average of 2.9 rooms per renter is the highest recorded, ahead of Malta (2.8) and Belgium (2.4).
Renters in the social and private sectors combined make up 30.7% of UK households, against a national homeownership rate of 68.4%.
This is broadly comparable to Canada (68.7%) and Mexico (69.6%) homeownership rates.
Median rent burden – this is the median housing costs (rent, utilities, taxes) as a % of disposable income for renter households – sits at 23% of disposable income, close to the midpoint and lower than most of the top five countries in the study.
A housing cost overburden rate of 8.9% means fewer than one in ten UK households spend more than 40% of income on housing, again a moderate figure relative to countries such as Denmark (22.7%) and Luxembourg (20.1%).
House prices in the UK have also grown just 4.7% faster than incomes since 2015, one of the more modest increases among the countries with available price-to-income data, and well below Portugal (48.8%), Canada (37.0%) and the United States (30.7%).
It’s this combination of moderate cost pressure and ample living space that keeps the UK well outside the index’s upper ranks, even as renting remains a long-term reality for close to a third of the population.
The top 20 ‘forever renter’ nations:
| Rank | Country | Forever Renter Score /100 | Renter Share % | Homeownership % | Rent Burden % | Overburden Rate % | Overcrowding % | Rooms/Person (renters) | Price-to-Income Index (2015=100) |
| 1 | Colombia | 71.4 | 40.7 | 35.9 | 20.6 | 18.7 | 30.4 | 1.3 | 89.7 |
| 2 | Denmark | 67.2 | 47.5 | 52.2 | 27.8 | 22.7 | 8.3 | 2.1 | 105.2 |
| 3 | Chile | 64.2 | 26.5 | 57.0 | 27.3 | 17.4 | N/A | N/A | 120.8 |
| 4= | Luxembourg | 59.7 | 36.0 | 62.3 | 25.5 | 20.1 | 7.0 | 2.0 | 120.5 |
| 4= | Switzerland | 59.7 | 61.2 | 38.2 | 24.6 | 7.2 | 5.6 | 2.0 | 125.8 |
| 6 | Canada | 54.6 | 31.3 | 68.7 | 24.5 | 10.1 | N/A | 1.9 | 137.0 |
| 7 | Sweden | 54.3 | 38.9 | 58.2 | 28.3 | 8.7 | 15.1 | 1.7 | 95.9 |
| 8 | Greece | 54.0 | 24.6 | 68.2 | 24.3 | 13.1 | 16.9 | 1.5 | 115.9 |
| 9 | Iceland | 53.7 | 19.2 | 78.4 | 27.6 | 18.3 | 8.7 | 1.6 | N/A |
| 10 | New Zealand | 52.9 | 41.4 | 57.5 | 25.9 | N/A | 0.6 | N/A | 119.6 |
| 11 | Finland | 51.7 | 38.1 | 61.0 | 30.6 | 9.5 | 11.9 | 1.7 | 81.0 |
| 12 | Germany | 51.5 | 55.4 | 41.0 | 18.4 | 4.8 | 9.5 | 1.8 | 109.1 |
| 13 | Austria | 49.4 | 43.7 | 47.9 | 19.4 | 4.9 | 10.7 | 1.6 | 115.9 |
| 14 | Portugal | 49.1 | 18.5 | 72.1 | 20.5 | 15.8 | 6.3 | 1.9 | 148.8 |
| 15 | Australia | 48.1 | 31.7 | 62.7 | 23.1 | 6.5 | N/A | N/A | 121.8 |
| 16 | United States | 48.0 | 33.1 | 65.3 | 24.4 | 12.0 | 4.8 | 2.4 | 130.7 |
| 17 | Netherlands | 45.5 | 41.2 | 57.9 | 25.5 | 4.4 | 4.3 | 2.4 | 130.4 |
| 18 | Norway | 42.9 | 25.8 | 72.3 | 28.5 | 8.9 | 5.7 | 2.1 | 108.9 |
| 19 | France | 42.1 | 39.2 | 58.6 | 21.8 | 5.6 | 7.6 | 1.9 | 93.6 |
| 20 | Mexico | 41.7 | 15.0 | 69.6 | 15.1 | 3.8 | 30.0 | 1.4 | N/A |
Colombia tops the global list with a ‘forever renter’ score of 71.4.
Renters there face a 20.6% rent burden and outnumber homeowners, revealing a 40.7% renter share against just 35.9% homeownership.
Overcrowding hits 30.4%, the highest in the top 20 and second-highest of all 39 countries analysed, trailing behind Latvia (31.6%).
New Zealand, by contrast, posts the lowest overcrowding rate in the top 20 at just 0.6%, joint with the UK, exposing two very different faces of the forever-renter phenomenon: acute housing shortages in emerging markets like Colombia, versus cost and tenure pressure in mature ones.
Colombia’s price-to-income index (89.7) sits below the 2015 baseline of 100. This means house prices have grown more slowly than incomes, a trend that, alongside its high overcrowding rate, points towards housing space pressure rather than rapid price growth.
Denmark ranks second with a score of 67.2.
Renter share sits at 47.5% against a 52.2% homeownership rate, meaning close to half the population rents despite a relatively strong ownership base. Denmark also carries the highest rent burden of the top five nations, at 27.8% of income, and a housing cost overburden rate of 22.7%, the steepest of any country studied. This points to a market where renting is more common and increasingly expensive than one shaped by a shortage of owner-occupied housing.
Countries like Switzerland, Canada, the United States, Norway and Mexico are also among the top 20 nations where long-term renting is becoming the norm, while homeownership is slipping further out of reach.
