Rents for young people rise by £3.5bn to record high as landlords pass on mortgage costs, analysis finds
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Number of under-45s renting surges by fastest rate in a decade as mortgage costs price out younger buyers, Hamptons research finds. Younger tenants in Britain have seen their rents rise by a collective £3.5bn to hit a record high in the past year as landlords pass on their mortgage costs, new analysis suggests.
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Under-45s are now paying 66 per cent of all rent in Britain, amounting to a record £56.2bn in 2024, according to Hamptons estate agents. Mortgage costs soared as the Bank of England pushed interest rates to a record high in response to the inflation crisis, causing rent increases to peak in December 2023, with an annual rise of 10.2 per cent, the analysis found, before falling back to 2 per cent.
With the volatility seeing even more young people priced out of buying a home, the number of under-45s renting properties soared by nearly 150,000 last year to hit 3.4 million – marking the fastest surge in a decade. That surge in the number of younger renters also came as the government’s longstanding Help to Buy scheme was wound up in March 2023, which had been used by nearly a third of first-time buyers over the previous decade.
“Higher mortgage rates have clipped the wings of many young aspiring homeowners in the last couple of years, meaning millennials increasingly outnumber older generations in the rental market,” said Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons. “Renters face saving for longer and earning more to borrow similar amounts of money to buy a home. Just like rapidly rising house prices, higher interest rates will keep younger generations of tenants renting for longer.”.
