Home ownership in England has fallen to its lowest level since 1991 as just 67.9% of households own their property according to a report commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and released by the British Property Federation (BPF).

The number of owner occupied households has fallen from 14.8m in 2005-06 to 14.6m in 2008-09, whilst in the same period the number of households renting privately has gone up by one million to just over three million.

Housing in the private rented sector (PRS) has accounted for nearly all household growth over the past decade as it increased from 13.9% of households in 2008 to 14.2% in 2009.

Liz Peace, chief executive, BPF, said: "Were seeing massive demand for private rented housing in the wake of crippled mortgage markets and soaring levels of people who cannot afford to buy. The government must do something to deal with this demand or we will end up with the crisis getting far worse. The number of people living in non-decent homes shows a vital need for new investment and our view is that, with mortgages unavailable to many, this finance will have to come from institutions like pension funds who have large swathes of capital to invest. We should look at the housing models adopted in the USA and Europe where renting is socially acceptable and standards are higher because their governments have embraced professional corporate landlords."

The BPF are pushing to see a more professional rental market emerge similar to what is available to Europeans and Americans, where large rental blocks exist, much like retail parks or hotels and as a result will improve quality and choice.
Only 11% of private renters are dissatisfied with their accommodation, compared to 16% of social renters and there are twice as many people in full time work in the PRS as in social renting. However 33% of households are non decent and this equates to around 20 million people living in below standard housing, based on the 7.4 million households the report states are non decent. There is over a quarter of social housing which is reported as below-par.