Ref: FOI/2022/4523
You asked
I would like to request a dataset on the average number of private houses registered as owned per person and or entity in the whole of the UK between 1970 and 2023.
Please can I also request a time series graph displaying of the number of Private Landlords in the United Kingdom each year from 2012 to 2023.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Unfortunately, we do not hold the requested data on landlords and the number of properties they own across the UK between 1970 and 2023.
However, you may be interested in our Property wealth data published as part of our Household total wealth publication, accessible via the following link: Household total wealth in Great Britain. Our latest property wealth tables and table 3.1 contains data on ownership of main residence, however this data is on a household level for GB and covers periods between 2006 and 2020. Therefore, this data does not entirely match your request.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) publish data about landlords in England. You may find the following information published on their website useful:
The English Private Landlord Survey:
- 2021: 'chapter 1 figures and annex tables' shows portfolio size as Figure 1.2 and number of landlords in table AT1_1.
- 2018: 'chapter 1 figures and annex tables' as above
- 2010: 'tables' file shows portfolio size as Table 2.2 and the number of landlords in Appendix 2 of the main report
- 2006: shows portfolio size as Table 6
- 2003: shows portfolio size as Table 3
- 2001: shows portfolio size as Table 2
We are not aware of any equivalent official statistics for other parts of the UK; however there are landlord surveys for Scotland that have been conducted by non-government bodies such as the Scottish Association of Landlords and the Portfolio Estate Agency.
Another source of data on numbers of landlords might be through the official registers. While the register for England is being set up, there are official registers for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
For any questions about this data, or if you wish to make an FOI request to DLUHC, they can be contacted via the following email address: mhclgcorrespondence@levellingup.gov.uk.