With Huddersfield youngsters not able to
buy their own property, my research would suggests the progressively important
role the private rented sector has been playing in housing people in need of a
roof over their head, especially at a time of increasing affordability problems
for first time buyers and growing difficulties faced by social housing
providers (local authorities and housing associations) in their ability to
secure funding from Westminster and then compete against the likes of the Bovis’s and David Wilson’s of this world to buy highly
priced building land.
Renting isn’t like it was in the 1960’s
and 70’s, where tenants couldn’t wait to leave their rack-rent landlords,
charging sky-high rents for properties with Second World War wood chip
wallpaper, no central heating and drafty windows. Since 1997 with the
introduction of buy to let mortgages and a new breed of Huddersfield landlord,
the private rented sector in Huddersfield has offered increasingly high quality
accommodation for younger Huddersfield households.
So whilst I knew in my own mind that the
type and class of tenant has improved over the last 20 years, I had nothing to
back that up ... until now. According to some detailed statistics from Durham
University just released, for the Kirklees Council area, the current situation
regarding social status of tenants shows some very interesting points. Using
the well known Demographic ABC1 grade classifications
which refers to the social grade definitions (which
describe, measure and classify people of different social grade and income and
earnings levels, for market research, social commentary, lifestyle statistics,
and statistical research and analysis) this is what I found out.
Of the 38,579 tenants
who live in a private rented property in the Kirklees Council area, 11.76% (or
4,557) of those tenants are classified in the AB category (AB Category being Higher and intermediate managerial / administrative / professional occupations), compared to 21.07% owner occupiers who own
their property without a mortgage or 3.0% who rent their property from the
local authority. Fascinating don’t you think?
Looking at the C1’s (C1’s being the Supervisory, clerical and junior
managerial / administrative / professional occupations), of the
already mentioned 38,579 tenants in the area, an impressive 12,801 of them are considered to be in the C1 category
(or 33.03%). Again, when compared with the owner occupiers who own their property without a
mortgage, that figure stands at 26.94% and 15.29% who rent their property from the local authority. So, if we use the conventional
measurements recorded by the white-collar “ABC1” i.e. middle class ….
This means 44.78% of
tenants are considered middle class in Huddersfield
I could go through
all of the social categories through to ‘E’, but I humbly don’t want to bore
you with too many numbers. The fact is that private tenants are moving up the
social ladder and whilst back in the 1960’s and 70’s, the
private rented sector in Huddersfield (and the rest of the UK) has customarily
been viewed as a temporary tenure for 20
somethings before they bought a property, the increase in renting in Huddersfield,
which I have talked about many times in the Huddersfield Property Market Blog
may be a reflection of increasing difficulty for this group in accessing other
tenures, but may also be a reflection that people nowadays choose to rent long
term instead?
Huddersfield Landlords need to be aware
that tenants now demand more from their properties, the agent and their landlord
and whilst affordability for first-time buyers and tighter controls on lending
may mean that potential first-time buyers are in the private rented sector for
longer, they will still pay ‘top dollar’ rent for a ‘top dollar’ property.
For more articles like this ...please
visit the Huddersfield Property Market Blog INSERT https://huddersfieldproperty.blogspot.co.uk/
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