With Dartford 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 Redrow’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 Dartford landlord, the private rented sector in Dartford
has offered increasingly high quality accommodation for younger Dartford
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 Dartford Borough 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 9,866 tenants who live in
a private rented property in the Dartford Borough Council area, 15.39% (or 1,518)
of those tenants are classified in the AB category (AB Category being Higher
and intermediate managerial / administrative / professional occupations), compared to 20.39% owner occupiers who own their
property without a mortgage or 3.48% 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 9,866 tenants in the area,
an impressive 3,141 of them are considered to
be in the C1 category (or 31.84%). Again, when compared with the owner occupiers who own their property without a
mortgage, that figure stands at 32.99% and 18.01% 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 47.22% of tenants are considered middle class in Dartford
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 Dartford (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 Dartford, which I
have talked about many times in the Dartford Property Report 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?
Dartford 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 Dartford
Property Report www.dartfordproperty.blogspot.co.uk
