20 things you don’t know about the London property market …. but should

By Christopher Watkin – Grantham’s own Property Stats Ghostwriter /Journalist for UK Estate & Letting Agents

Data from the English Housing and crunched by StatoWatkin

1. London is close to “tenure parity”, renting is almost as common as owning.

London’s renters (private renters + social renters) account for 49.0% of households versus 32.7% in England excluding London, leaving London at 51.0% owner occupation versus 67.3% elsewhere.

Implication: Policy and investment assumptions that treat “typical England” as owner-occupier-dominant fit London poorly, and should be adapted to a renter-heavy market.

2.      London has the lowest owner-occupation share of any English region.

London has 51.0% owner occupiers, massively below England excluding London (67.3%)

Implication: Interventions aimed at stabilising households (for example energy retrofit financing, hardship support) should factor in London’s lower incidence of equity-rich owner-occupiers.

3.      You are 63% more likely to rent in London compared to the rest of the Country as a whole

28.1% of London households privately rent versus 17.2% in England excluding London

Implication: Rental-market regulation, enforcement capacity, and tenant resilience measures are proportionally more important in London.

4. You are 53.5% more likely to privately rent in London than any other Uk region

London’s private renting share (28.1%) is over half more likley to rent than the next-highest region (West Midlands, about 18.3%), indicating a step-change rather than a gradual gradient.

Implication: “Regional average” rental assumptions materially understate London’s rental exposure, for both investors and policymakers.

5. London remains near the top of the social renting range, despite private renting being the bigger differentiator.

London social renters at 20.9% versus 15.5% in England excluding London, and London is one of the highest regions on this metric (around second).

Implication: London’s housing need and allocation pressures cannot be analysed purely through private renting, social housing remains structurally more important than in most regions.

6. London has the lowest outright ownership share in England, consistent with a younger household profile.

Outright owners are 22.9% of London households versus 37.8% in England excluding London. This may relate to both higher house prices and age structure, and Census 2021 confirms London has the lowest median age among English regions (35 years).

Implication: London’s owner-occupier base is less “mortgage-free”, which can increase sensitivity to interest rates and refinancing risk.

7. London’s owner-occupiers are more mortgage-heavy than elsewhere.

Mortgagors represent 55.1% of London owner-occupier households last year versus 43.8% in England excluding London ie 25.8% proportional more

Implication: Mortgage-market transmission (rate changes, lending criteria) is likely to have a relatively larger effect on London’s owner-occupier segment than in most other regions.

8.      London did not “age into” outright ownership to the same extent as the rest of England over the last two decades.

London’s outright ownership share increased by only about +0.6 pp from 2003–04 to 2024–25, versus about +7.5 pp in England excluding London, indicating a much weaker long-run uplift in mortgage-free ownership.

Implication: If long-term policy assumes a growing base of outright owners (and associated resilience), London is the key exception.

9. London’s private renting share has risen faster than elsewhere since the early 2000s.

London’s private renting share rose by about +14.5% from 2003–04 to 2024–25, compared with about +8.5% in England excluding London.

Implication: London’s housing system has become more rental-reliant than the national trend, strengthening the case for stable, long-term rental policy frameworks.

10. London’s total household count has grown faster than the rest of England since 2003–04, but with a different tenure mix.

Total London households rise by about +26.8% from 2003–04 to 2024–25 versus about +19.8% in England excluding London.

Implication: Housing supply and service needs in London are not just about “high prices”, they also reflect faster growth in household formation.

11. Private renting drove most of London’s net household growth over 2003–04 to 2024–25.

82% of London’s household growth over 2003–04 to 2024–25 is attributable to growth in private renter households, versus roughly 60% in England excluding London (computed as each tenure’s contribution to total household growth).

Implication: Policies targeting London’s growth pressures must treat the private rented sector as the main “absorber” of additional households.

12. London’s private renting share peaked later than the rest of England, and recent year-to-year swings are larger.

London’s private renting share peaked at about 31.8% in 2023–24, whereas England excluding London peaks earlier (around 2016–17 at about 18.6%). Both have remained roughly the same since.

Implication: Decision-makers should treat short-term London tenure shifts cautiously and emphasise multi-year patterns and confidence intervals.

13. London’s local authority renting share is almost double the rest of England.

10.2% of London households renting from a local authority versus 5.4% in England excluding London.

Implication: Council-housing funding, stock management, and homelessness prevention capacity are particularly consequential in London.

14. London’s social sector is more “council-heavy” than the rest of England.

Local authority renters are about 48.7% of London’s social renter households, versus about 34.8% in England excluding London (computed as local authority renters divided by all social renters).

Implication: Social-housing policy in London needs to account for a larger role for councils relative to housing associations than in many other regions.

15. London’s rental-market “depth” is dramatically higher, private renters are more than half as numerous as owner-occupiers.

The private-renter-to-owner-occupier ratio is about 0.55 in London, versus about 0.26 in England excluding London, meaning London’s ratio is roughly 2.15 times higher.

Implication: London’s housing outcomes will be more sensitive to private-sector rental supply constraints, landlord tax and regulatory changes, and investor behaviour.

16. London’s dwelling-stock tenure mix reinforces the household tenure outlier.

London’s dwellings are 51.0% owner occupied, 27.7% private rented, and 21.3% social rented, compared with 66.7%, 17.7%, and 15.6% respectively in England excluding London.

Implication: Investors and policymakers should align planning and standards not just to “who lives there”, but also to “what the stock is”, because London’s stock is structurally more rented.

17. London is overrepresented in England’s rented dwelling stock relative to its share of total dwellings.

London is about 14.8% of England’s total dwellings, but about 21.4% of all private rented dwellings and about 19.2% of all social rented dwellings, while only about 11.7% of owner-occupied dwellings

Implication: “National” rental-policy changes will have disproportionately large absolute effects in London due to London’s greater share of the rental stock.

18. London’s total dwelling stock grew materially faster than the rest of England over 2019–2024.

London’s total dwellings increased 7.6% from 2019 to 2024, versus 4.5% for England excluding London.

Implication: Supply side strategies in London should consider that the stock is expanding, but still not enough to converge tenure structure with the rest of England.

19. London’s owner-occupied dwelling stock grew more than twice as fast as elsewhere over 2019–2024.

Owner-occupied dwellings rise by about +11.1% in London (2019 to 2024), versus about +5.0% in England excluding London, which is consistent with London’s owner-occupied share rising modestly over this window.

Implication: Policies aimed at increasing London owner-occupation may be seeing more stock-side movement than is visible in longer-run household tenure trends, but affordability constraints still limit outright ownership.

20. London’s outside-space profile is the clearest “built-form” outlier, private plots are scarce, shared plots are common, and no-plot dwellings are concentrated.

Only 60.3% of London dwellings have a private plot versus 85.3% in England excluding London, while 35.1% have shared plots versus 13.7% elsewhere, and 4.6% have no plot versus 0.9% elsewhere.

London also accounts for about 46.1% of all “no plot” dwellings in England despite only 14.8% of total dwellings .

Implication: Planning, design standards, and health and wellbeing policy in London should treat access to private outside space as a structural constraint, not a marginal issue.

Final stuff.

London property-market structure in the English Housing Survey annex table