The traditional image of the UK flatsharing economy is being redrawn by sky-rocketing rental prices, forcing a generational demographic shift on exactly who is renting, new figures from SpareRoom have revealed.
Data from flatsharing site SpareRoom revealed that while younger people are being forced out of the rental market, instead opting to stay at home, the number of older people renting and sharing their homes is surging.
This comes after they revealed earlier this month that despite the average London room decreasing in price each quarter, rents in the capital are still way above the ceiling of affordability for many people.
Experts are now warning the UK’s housing market has become a holding pen rather than a climbable ladder, with an estimated salary of £30,000 being the new minimum requirement to afford a single room in a shared home.
Matt Hutchinson, director of SpareRoom, said: “The market adapts but the long-term picture is concerning as the UK is not a country that’s geared towards renting for life.
“Those who haven’t built equity in property could be much worse off in their retirement years unless something changes dramatically.”
With the percentage of flatsharers aged 45 and over jumping by 60% in the last decade, fears are mounting that there are a growing number of older people who will still be paying market-rate rent for a single room.
Without having a safety net of a higher pension or property equity, older people are now facing more financial pressure to climb the property ladder and the younger generation are having to delay major life milestones to save enough to leave home.
Michelle Williams, a 68-year-old solo room renter from Earlsfield, was forced to leave her property last year after the cost of living crisis raised her monthly rent to ‘compete with the market’, pricing her out of the room. She had lived in south west London for 40 years.
After Zoopla turned out unresourceful, she then turned to SpareRooms where she found her current room in a flatshare with three other people – she is more than double the age of the youngest tenant.
Williams said: “Having to move into a house share at 66 really just made me feel like I’d failed.
“My housemates are lovely but it doesn’t change the fact we are at different stages of life – it’s strange being a lodger at my age and I still don’t know how I’m meant to get back onto the property ladder.”
Williams described feeling as though she had lost a sense of self, and that she constantly feels like a guest in someone else’s home.
She added: “Where do I even go from here?
“I’m almost 70, there isn’t another step on the ladder for people like me.”
Another growing concern is that according to a survey this month of more than 35,000 flatsharers, four in 10 now live in multi-generational households where the age difference between the oldest and youngest adult is 20 years or more.
Over the last decade the percentage of under 25s flatsharing has decreased by six percent, and the core represented group of 25-34 years olds has quietly dropped from 45% to 42%.
This surge in multi-generational flatsharing has now become a blaring indicator of financial desperation and overcrowding in the housing economy.
There has also been a steady rise in the number of older generation live-in landlords letting out single rooms as a financial tool to stay above the cost of living crisis.
According to research by SpareRoom there has been a 38% increase in the last two years of over 65’s sharing their homes with lodgers in the hopes to save more for retirement.
The UK Rent a Room Scheme allows live-in landlords to earn up to £7,500 per year tax free, making it the ideal way to supplement lack of income.
Barbara and Robert Strafford rent their top floor room out to lodgers for £800 a month, with this covering the cost of the room, bills, and use of the bathroom and kitchen.
Barbara Strafford said: “Our current lodger is lovely but I guess sometimes you feel a bit guilty.
“She is paying £800 a month to use our spare room and we’re having to use that rent to pay our own bills.
“It’s all of her own savings – I just feel like the system is failing us on both ends of the age scale.”
Robert Strafford added: “We’re just people trying to keep the heating on without eating too much into our retirement money.
“Something really does need to be done from the top.”
This shift in the UK’s room renting economy is now igniting fears of a ‘sleep-walker’ style of living which leaves little room for younger generations to get onto the property ladder.
Unlike other models across Europe where long term rentals are more protected, the UK market remains indefinitely competitive.
Featured image credit: Guilherme Fontes via unsplash
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