Build To Rent Resident Demographics Revealed

A recent report released by The British Property Federation (BPF), Dataloft, London First and the UKAA has looked at the types of people that the Build-to-rent sector is housing in the UK.

Building on their first London-focused publication, this report looks at BTR homes and their residents across major cities and towns in England, resulting in a large sample size covering almost 20% of completed homes (the largest ever UK resident study for BTR). The report also explores the emergence of “Suburban Build to Rent" - high-quality, professionally managed homes for rent in outer-urban and peri-urban areas. 

The report suggests that BTR residents are much more representative of the private rented sector (PRS) than is often perceived with demographics such as affordability, incomes, professions and ages being more similar than expected. Key findings from the report can be found below... 

Income

BTR residents’ incomes are similar to those in the private rental sector, with 32% of BTR residents earning between £19-32k per year (in the PRS, 37% of residents earn in this income band). 

Age 

The most common age band for residents in both BTR and the PRS is 25 to 34 years old (both making up over 40% of all residents). 

Household 

BTR is home to a more diverse range of households with more couples and sharers (58%) than the PRS (41%) - they do however both have a comparable number of singles. The Suburban BTR sample revealed a much larger portion of families (43% of households) than the 22% in the PRS. 

Affordability

BTR has comparative levels of affordability to the PRS for all types of residents, with the report revealing that residents spend on average 29-33% of their income on rent. 

Employment

The report finds that BTR residents are professionally diverse and employed across many different industries and is comparable to the PRS. For instance, the same proportion of public sector workers living in these sectors is the same for both (18%). 

Resident Experience 

The most common amenities included in monthly rent are access to a shared garden or roof terrace (78%), a concierge (73%), facilitation of social events (73%), parcel acceptance (69%) and co-working (61%) and lounge (61%) spaces. 73% of BTR schemes also allow pets in some or all homes. 

You can read the report in full on the BPF website.