Bank of England data show renters have a median household income of £24,000, compared with £52,500 for those with a mortgage. Renters also have less squirreled away, with average cash savings of £750 compared with £5,500 for mortgage owners.
“Higher debt and lower savings would make renters more likely to face hard financial choices in the future – like defaulting or cutting spending – which could trigger or worsen a wider economic downturn,” Threadneedle Street analysts warned this month.
Haire said Britons spend more time in their homes than other nations, and take pride in putting their own mark on them.
Recent research by Bupa suggested two fifths of British adults spend less than an hour a day outdoors, which Haire said adds another dynamic to home ownership in the UK.
He added: “I’ve lived in England most of my adult life and for me, when you rent a place that’s not yours, it’s probably not your furniture, it’s not your walls, you can’t put a picture up. You never get the chance to fully personalise it. So I think in Britain, as opposed to some other places – a little bit because our weather is so rubbish – we spend more time in our houses than some other places.
“I spent a lot of time in Hong Kong. And some of the houses there are really challenged size-wise and so a lot of people live a lot of their lives out of them. Brits, however, tend to live a lot of their life in their houses watching television or whatever it is. And so the need for you to be able to personalise it and make it your own is high. You can’t really do that in rental accommodation.”
Haire said these brewing social issues were one of the key drivers behind Skipton’s decision to launch the UK’s first 100pc mortgage since 2008. The zero-deposit loan is available to first-time buyers who have paid their rent in full for at least a year.
