Renting from a private landlord

Published 10 October 2017

Last updated 10 October 2017 - see all updates

There is a new version of this page. View the latest version.

Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• 4.4 million of the 22.6 million households in England in 2015/16 rented their home from a private landlord – 20% of households

• some ethnic minority households were more likely to rent their home from a private landlord than White British households

• in all socio-economic groups, regions of the country, age groups and most income bands White British households were less likely to rent from a private landlord than those from any other ethnic group, including White ethnic minorities

Things you need to know

Compared with White British households, ethnic minority households tend to be younger, to have lived in England for a shorter time and to be located in urban areas. They are also likely to live in larger households and in rented accommodation.

To ensure that there is a large enough number of ethnic minority households to produce reliable findings, the data is drawn from the English Housing Survey (EHS) 2014/15 and 2015/16.

Information about households available from the EHS Headline and Annual Reports is normally based on a 12-month period (April to March) single year of the survey, so some of the statistics cited here may not match those in the Headline and Annual Reports.

The commentary has focused on findings based on subgroups of at least 30 households to ensure that we report reliable findings.

The number of Gypsies and Irish travellers interviewed is very small. To avoid disclosing personal information about individuals in those groups, information about them is not presented in some of the tables or charts.

The English Housing Survey (EHS) is a ‘sample survey’: it collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations (reach 'findings’) about the total population.

For example, EHS findings might include the percentage of households who get help from their family to buy their own home.

The commentary for this data only includes reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings.

Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample.

What the data measures

This data measures how likely people from different ethnic groups are to rent their home from a private landlord.

Privately rented housing covers property which is not rented from local authorities (including Arms’ Length Management Organisations and housing action trusts), housing associations, local housing companies, co-operatives and charitable trusts.

The private rented sector also includes accommodation that is tied to a job or made available rent-free.

The figures are drawn from the 2014/15 and 2015/16 English Housing Survey (EHS). The survey involves face-to-face interviews with about 13,300 randomly selected households every year.

These are used to make estimates for the 22 million households in England as a whole.

The EHS is a national survey of people's housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of homes in England.

The information relates to households. A household is one person or a group of people (not necessarily related) who have the accommodation as their only or main residence. If it is a group, they must share cooking facilities and also share a living room, sitting room or dining area.

The EHS has ethnicity information on the household reference person as well as all other members of the household. The household reference person is the person in whose name the dwelling is owned or rented or who is otherwise responsible for the accommodation.

Some households contain people from different ethnic backgrounds; in these circumstances, we have used the ethnic background of the household reference person to define the ethnic background of the household.

Nearly all the household reference persons – more than 99.8% interviewed – provided information on their ethnicity.

At the geographical level, the data is shown for the nine regions of England: North East, North West, Yorkshire & Humberside, East Midlands, West Midlands, East, London, South East and the South West.

The ethnic categories used in this data

For comparisons made at national level, this data uses the standardised ethnic groups based on the 2011 census.

White:

• English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British
• Irish
• Gypsy, Traveller or Irish Traveller
• Any other White background

Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups:

• White and Black Caribbean
• White and Black African
• White and Asian
• Any other Mixed/Multiple ethnic background

Asian/Asian British:

• Indian
• Pakistani
• Bangladeshi
• Chinese
• Any other Asian background

Black/African/Caribbean/Black British:

• African
• Caribbean
• Any other Black/African/Caribbean background

Other ethnic group:

• Arab
• Any other ethnic group

For data analysed both by ethnicity and by socio-economic group, income, region and age the following binary category has been used:

• White British and Other – White British people compared with all other groups (including White ethnic minorities and all other ethnic minorities)

This is because the number of people that were surveyed to generate estimates for the population as a whole becomes too small to be reliable when broken down both by ethnicity (in either detailed or broad categories) and by another factor like socio-economic group or income.

Data is therefore grouped to a size where estimates become reliable. In this case, information broken down by ethnicity and another factor compares White British with Other.

2. Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households who privately rent their home

Ethnicity	%	Private renters	All households
Asian
Bangladeshi	19	19,000	98,000
Chinese	53	68,000	129,000
Indian	25	125,000	504,000
Pakistani	26	86,000	333,000
Asian other	44	95,000	218,000
Black
Black African	31	114,000	368,000
Black Caribbean	17	48,000	289,000
Black other	18	7,000	38,000
Mixed
Mixed White/Asian	14	9,000	66,000
Mixed White/Black African	41	33,000	80,000
Mixed White/Black Caribbean	36	36,000	99,000
Mixed other	31	10,000	32,000
White
White British	16	2,995,000	18,808,000
White Irish	16	30,000	184,000
White Gypsy/Traveller
White other	55	594,000	1,078,000
Other
Arab	48	30,000	63,000
Any other	44	100,000	227,000

Data withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a private landlord Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity Summary

This data shows that:

• 16% of White British householders rented their home from a private landlord

• Other White, Chinese and Arab households had higher rates of renting their home from a private landlord, with rates of 55%, 53%, and 48% respectively

• although the survey estimates show Other Mixed households have higher rates of private renting compared to White British households in this sample, these are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about differences between these groups in the total population

• similarly, although the survey estimates for Bangladeshi, Other Black, Black Caribbean, White Irish and Mixed White and Asian households in this sample show differences in the rate of private renting compared to White British these are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about differences between these groups in the total population

3. Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity and socio-economic group

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households who privately rent their home by ethnicity and socio-economic group

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Socio-economic group	White British %	White British Private renters	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Private renters	All other ethnic groups All households
Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations	14	1,036,824	7,635,539	35	490,968	1,400,849
Intermediate occupations	16	624,600	3,857,408	35	243,998	702,682
Routine and manual occupations	18	1,114,270	6,260,530	39	513,697	1,311,313

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a private landlord Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity and socio-economic group Summary

This data shows that:

• in every socio-economic group, White British households were less likely to rent their home from a private landlord than all other ethnic minority households

4. Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity and income

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households who privately rent their home by ethnicity and weekly income

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Weekly income	White British %	White British Private renters	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Private renters	All other ethnic groups All households
Up to £99	33	59,711	183,039	36	23,448	64,744
£100 to £199	18	294,709	1,623,813	39	123,561	319,019
£200 to £299	18	413,386	2,290,104	28	108,725	382,066
£300 to £399	19	395,618	2,121,559	44	216,102	490,875
£400 to £499	19	339,283	1,793,046	38	150,078	399,204
£500 to £599	19	315,439	1,641,076	46	156,464	343,358
£600 to £699	16	251,076	1,521,753	39	122,579	312,920
£700 to £799	16	193,288	1,234,900	42	110,892	266,681
£800 to £899	13	147,330	1,099,098	37	77,255	209,729
£900 to £999	13	111,590	875,735	35	65,557	188,360
£1000 and above	11	474,060	4,424,028	30	248,789	831,408

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a private landlord Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity and income Summary

This data shows that:

• in all income bands except the lowest, White British households were less likely to rent from a private landlord than all other ethnic groups

• although the survey estimates show differences in the rates of private renting for those earning less than £99 a week in this sample, these are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about the differences between White British and ethnic minority households in the total population

5. Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity and area

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage and number of households who privately rent their own home by ethnicity and region

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Region	White British %	White British Private renters	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Private renters	All other ethnic groups All households
North East	15	166,112	1,082,079	33	20,254	60,660
North West	16	448,408	2,726,087	29	96,736	332,876
Yorkshire and the Humber	18	358,938	1,993,215	33	83,830	251,038
East Midlands	15	263,127	1,716,315	35	77,504	223,700
West Midlands	14	283,525	1,973,387	29	102,212	355,356
East	15	316,312	2,179,257	39	124,001	316,271
London	19	326,889	1,721,643	37	599,610	1,615,633
South East	15	470,422	3,196,339	46	228,055	492,775
South West	16	361,757	2,220,374	45	71,249	160,054

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a private landlord Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity and area Summary

This data shows that:

• in all regions, ethnic minority households were more likely to privately rent their home than White British households

6. Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity and age

• Location: England
• Time period: 2014/15 and 2015/16 (combined)
• Source: English Housing Survey

Percentage of households who privately rent their home by ethnicity and age

	White British			All other ethnic groups
Age group	White British %	White British Private renters	White British All households	All other ethnic groups %	All other ethnic groups Private renters	All other ethnic groups All households
16 - 24 yrs old	64	349,592	547,604	78	163,159	209,064
25 - 34 yrs old	40	959,728	2,400,150	62	546,719	888,814
35 - 44 yrs old	21	613,464	2,909,500	37	384,650	1,043,931
45 - 54 yrs old	12	454,510	3,746,787	24	193,390	795,069
55 - 64 yrs old	9	293,670	3,240,797	17	74,074	426,164
65 yrs old or over	5	324,525	5,963,859	9	41,457	445,322

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

Summary of Renting from a private landlord Renting from a private landlord by ethnicity and age Summary

• in all age groups, White British households were less likely to rent from a private landlord than all other ethnic groups, including White ethnic minorities

7. Methodology

Face-to-face interviews with a random sample of about 13,300 households a year.

The dwellings of about 6,000 of the interviewed households are randomly selected to take part in the physical survey element carried out by a qualified surveyor.

In addition, a random sample of around 200 of the dwellings identified by the interviewer as vacant are also included in the physical survey element.

Weighting:

Weighting is used to adjust the results of a survey to make them representative of the population.

For example, a survey which contains 25% females and 75% males will not accurately reflect the views of the general population which we know is around 50% male and 50% female.

Statisticians rebalance or ‘weight’ the survey results to more accurately represent the general population. In the EHS, weighting makes the results more representative of the 22.6 million households in England.

Suppression rules and disclosure control

Estimates based on less than 30 households have been suppressed to ensure that we report reliable findings.

The analysis has been done only by binary classification where broken down by NS-SEC, income, region or age. This prevents small numbers' appearing in the table and avoids the potential for identification of individuals. The data are deposited in the UK Data Archive, after a wide range of disclosure control has been applied.

Strictly disclosure controlled data in the form of derived variables are available under the End-User Licence (e.g. ethnicity is given as white/ethnic minority).

Data sets with some more details are made available under Special Licence after the users has applied to the EHS Team for access.

Potentially disclosive data, including low-level geography variables (postcode and LSOA) are available only through the UKDA Secure Access which requires users to undergo special training, including on disclosure control, before access is given.

Rounding

Estimates in the charts and tables are given to the nearest whole number but more detailed estimates to 1 decimal place are available in the downloads.

Related publications

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/english-housing-survey

Quality and methodology information

8. Data sources

Source

English Housing Survey

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Note on corrections or updates

Information published in the EHS headline report and other annual reports is usually based on a 12-month period, rather than the 2 years’ combined data used here. As a result, the statistics shown here may not match those in the EHS reports.

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The English Housing Survey is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It collects information about people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.

9. Download the data

Renting from a private landlord - Spreadsheet (csv) 16 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, geography, age group, NS-SEC (socio-economic group), income, region, value, denominator, numerator and sample size

Publication release date: 10 October 2017

Updated: 10 October 2017

full page history

1. 10 October 2017 Corrections to ethnicity by socio-economic group
2. 10 October 2017 First published

From: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

---

Share this page

Twitter Facebook LinkedIn