Housing shortage will force Britons to rent, says report

INCREASING numbers of Britons are likely to be forced to rent in future as a shortage of housing supply pushes home ownership out of many people's reach.

Research by the Council of Mortgage Lenders indicates the proportion of people who are homeowners is likely to fall in the coming years, while increasing numbers of people will instead be tenants, mainly renting in the private sector.

The report said some of the shift would reflect changing consumer preferences, but the rising number of renters would also be due to affordability pressures, which have been exacerbated by the credit crunch.

Bob Pannell, the CML's head of research, said: "The overall effect is that for those in the formerly typical first-time (buyer] age bracket of 25 to 34, the likelihood of buying at the moment is around half its level of a decade ago."

He added that for the foreseeable future, the current constraints to the supply of both housing and finance look set to continue.