The degree to which young Bicester people are locked out of the Bicester housing market has been revealed in new statistics.
I was chatting to one of my landlord’s last week about how the homeownership rates in the early-middle aged adults in Bicester had affected the demand for rental property in in recent years. I knew that it was affecting the Bicester rental market, but to what degree I wasn’t quite sure. So I promised the Landlord some facts to back up my thoughts. I like a challenge and I thought I’d share what I found.
Like anyone in Bicester, and certainly for those born more recently, it’s drastically less likely you will own your own home at a given age than those born a decade earlier, let’s roll the clock back to the Millennium and compare the figures from then to today.
In the year 2000, 59.5% of Bicester 28-year olds (born in 1972) owned their own home, whilst a 28 year old today (born in 1990) would have a 31.7% chance of owning their own home. Next, let’s look at someone born ten years before that. So, going back to 2000 again, a 38 year Bicester person (therefore born in 1962) would have an 87.8% chance of owning their own home and a 38 year today in Bicester (born in 1980) would only have a 68.4% chance of owning their own home.
Since the Millennium, overall general homeownership in the 25 to 44 year old age range in Bicester has reduced from 81.21% to 58.72%
If you look at the graph below, split into the four age ranges of 25-29 year olds, 30-34 year olds, 35-39 year olds and finally 40-44 year olds, you will quite clearly see the changes since the Millennium in Bicester. The fact is the figures in Bicester show the homeownership rate has proportionally dropped more significantly for the younger age range (25-29 year olds) compared to the other age ranges.
When I shared these figures with the landlord, he suggested this deterioration in homeownership in Bicester across the age groups could be down to the fact that more of those born in the 1980’s and 1990’s (over those born in the 60’s and 70’) are going to University and hence entering the job market at an older age or those young adults are living with their parents longer.
I didn’t agree with this suggestion, so did some further research to see if my intuition was right. I researched some national homeownership statistics of different age groups with the same number of years after they left education (rather than at the same age) and that gave an identical dip to the graph above. Neither are these drops in homeownership related with a significant increase in the number of young adults living with their parents. Again, nationally, that has hardly changed over the last 20 years as the percentage of 30-year-olds living with Mum and Dad only increased from 22% of those born in the early ‘70s to 23% of those born in the early ‘80s.
So, what does this mean for the rental market in Bicester?
Only one thing, with the local authority not building council houses, many housing associations strapped for cash to build new properties and the younger generation not buying, there is only one way these youngsters can obtain a roof over their head and have a home of their own, through the private landlord sector. Now with the new tax rules and up and coming licensing rules, Bicester landlords will have to work smarter to ensure they make the investment returns they have in the past. If you ever want to pick my brains on the future direction of the Bicester rental market please feel free to contact me or pop in next time you are passing the office.
