Subnational estimates of dwellings and households by tenure, England: 2019

• In the year 2019, we estimate that around 95% of English local authority districts had a higher proportion of dwellings that were owner-occupied compared with privately rented.

• In our estimates, Westminster in London was the only local authority district in which there was a significantly higher percentage of dwellings that were privately rented.

• Typically, local authority districts in London had lower percentages of dwellings that were owner-occupied and higher percentages of dwellings that were privately rented compared with other regions in England.

• We estimate that in the year 2019, Castle Point in the East of England had the highest percentage of dwellings that were owner-occupied (81.7%) and Hackney in London had the lowest (28.7%).

• Westminster in London had the highest percentage of dwellings that were privately rented (42.1%) and North East Derbyshire in the East Midlands had the lowest (9.8%).

• In our estimates, approximately one in six local authority districts had a significant increase in the estimated percentage of dwellings that were owned outright, between 2012 and 2019.

• Around one in seven local authority districts had a significant decrease in the estimated percentage of dwellings that were owned with a mortgage or loan between the years 2012 and 2019.

Almost all local authority districts had a higher percentage of dwellings that were owner-occupied than privately rented

In the year 2019, we estimate that around 95% of local authority districts in England had a higher proportion of dwellings that were owner-occupied than privately rented.

There were 15 local authority districts that did not have a higher percentage of owner-occupied dwellings, 11 were in London. The remaining four were spread across the country.

Of these 15, 14 local authority districts had no significant difference between the percentage of owner-occupied and privately rented dwellings.

In our estimates, Westminster in London was the only local authority district to have a significantly higher percentage of dwellings that were privately rented (42.1%) than owner-occupied (36.2%).

Figure 1 shows that most local authority districts had a relatively small percentage of privately rented dwellings, with our estimates showing that 225 local authority districts out of 313 (excluding the Isles of Scilly) had less than 20% of total dwellings that were privately rented.

Higher percentages of owner-occupied dwellings were more common, with 258 of local authority districts having at least 60% of total dwellings in this tenure category.

Lower percentages of owner-occupied dwellings were found in London

In 2019, it was estimated that Castle Point in the East of England was the local authority district with the highest percentage of owner-occupied dwellings (81.7%), whereas Hackney in London had the lowest percentage (28.7%).

Typically, local authority districts in London had lower percentages of dwellings that were owner-occupied compared with all other English regions.

As seen in Figure 2, all five of the local authority districts with the lowest percentage of owner-occupied dwellings were in London.

The five local authority districts with the highest percentages were located in the East of England, the East Midlands and the West Midlands.

Higher percentages of privately rented dwellings were found in London

In the year 2019, it was estimated that Westminster in London had the highest percentage of dwellings that were privately rented (42.1%), whereas North East Derbyshire in the East Midlands had the lowest (9.8%).

Typically, local authority districts in London had a higher percentage of dwellings that were privately rented.

In our estimates for the year 2019, all five of the local authority districts with the highest percentage of privately rented dwellings were in London.

The five local authority districts with the lowest percentages of privately rented dwellings were in the West Midlands, the East Midlands and the East of England.

Nearly one in six local authority districts had a significant increase in the percentage of dwellings owned outright, over a seven-year period

This section looks at a split of the owner-occupied tenure category between dwellings that are owned outright and those that are owned with a mortgage or loan, with analysis covering the years 2012 to 2019.

We estimate that between the years 2012 and 2019, there were 51 local authority districts that had a significant increase in the percentage of dwellings that were owned outright.

In our estimates, there were no local authority districts in which the percentage of owned outright dwellings fell by a significant degree over this period.

In our estimates between the years 2012 and 2019, there were significant decreases in the proportion of dwellings owned with a mortgage or loan in 45 local authority districts. There were no local authority districts in which there was a significant increase during this period.

Household

A household refers to a person living alone; or a group of people living at the same address who share cooking facilities and living room or sitting or dining area.

Dwelling

A dwelling refers to the physical unit of accommodation which may comprise of one or more household space. The analysis in this article uses dwellings rather than households.

Owner-occupied

This tenure category covers units of accommodation in which the occupier either owns the property in full or has taken out a mortgage or loan to help purchase their home and is still in the process of repaying the debt.

Owned outright

This tenure category covers units of accommodation in which the occupier owns the property in full and has no outstanding mortgage repayments or money owed in connection with the property in any other form.

Owned with mortgage or loan

This tenure category covers units of accommodation in which the occupier has taken out taken out a loan or mortgage to help purchase their home and are still in the process of repaying the debt.

Private rent

This tenure category includes all units of accommodation that are not occupied by the owner but are occupied by a tenant or group of tenants. Privately rented accommodation is owned by a landlord who can be, but is not limited to; an employer, private company, a private individual, or a friend or family member. This tenure category also includes occupiers who are living in properties that they do not own but do not pay rent and squatting tenants.

Social rent

This tenure category includes all units of accommodation that are owned/maintained by a local council, local authority districts, housing association (private registered provider), charitable trust or local housing company and are occupied by a tenant or group of tenants.

Annual estimates of the tenure breakdown at a subnational level will provide evidence to monitor the distribution of tenure over time within an area and between areas. This will help users such as planning authorities who might use this information in setting housing policy and allows them to monitor the distribution of tenure over time within an area and between areas.

The distribution of dwelling stock by tenure varies across local authority districts. For instance, in England, urban areas tend to have larger numbers of social housing in comparison to rural areas.

We produce datasets that provide estimates of subnational tenure breakdown for both dwellings and households. When using this data, it is important to consider which is most suitable for the intended purpose.

• Households would be the most useful measure if the user is interested in tenure estimates based on the groups of people who live in properties.

• Dwellings would be the most useful measure if the user is interested in the number of physical units of accommodation (including those that are vacant) available to be taken up by each of the tenure types (total dwelling stock).

For more information on the differences between households and dwellings, please see the associated Quality and Methodology information (QMI) report.

For definitions of households and dwellings, please see the Glossary.

There are two important points for interpreting figures in this article:

• the analysis in this article focuses on dwellings rather than households.

• the statistics presented in this release are subject to a margin of error as the estimates are partly based on survey data and there is a level of variability across input data sources; in this statistical bulletin, differences and changes described are those that are considered significant, where the 95% confidence intervals do not overlap

GSPREE method

To estimate the number of households and dwellings that fall within each tenure category at the local authority district level we use the  Generalised Structure Preserving Estimator (PDF, 2.26MB) (GSPREE) method. The GSPREE method uses small area estimation techniques to combine and draw strength from several data sources. It takes census data from 2011 and supplements it with social survey data from the Annual Population Survey (APS) to generate more reliable and complete estimates than it would be possible to generate from each source individually. Estimates are benchmarked against row and column margins to ensure that they are correctly scaled to represent the population. For more information on the GSPREE process, see  Explaining the Generalised Structure Preserving Estimator.

For more information on the data sources we use as part of the GSPREE method, please see the Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) report.

Comparing estimates of households and dwellings

Alongside this article we have published subnational tenure estimate datasets for both households and dwellings.

For more information on the differences between households and dwellings please see the associated Quality and Methodology information (QMI) report.