15% of Solihull people Rent - Is that Healthy?

Renting used to be a dirty word in the 60’s and 70’s. You either lived in a ‘Rigsby Rising Damp’ style bedsit with wood chip on the wall and a coin operated electric meter (that buzzed in the night) or you lived in a council house. In the latter part of the 20^th Century, the British were persuaded that rent payments were ‘wasted money’. However, owning often makes less financial sense than renting in today’s market and as the rate of homeownership is starting to drop substantially, it appears there is no stigma at all to renting… everyone is doing it. In fact, of the 122,056 residents of Solihull, 19,113 of you rent your house from either the local authority/social provider (i.e. council house or housing association) or private landlords – meaning 15.65% of Solihull people are tenants.

The idea of homeownership is deeply embedded in the British soul, in fact 101,762 Solihull people live in an owner occupied property (or 83.37%). Housing is at the heart of Government policy, as George Osborne has promised 200,000 new properties a year, so that first time buyers can purchase their first home. To get votes, Thatcher (and for that fact, everyone since) ran election campaigns promising everybody their own home, and as a country, we seem to equate homeownership to achieving the pinnacle of British life.

So, as more and more people are renting nowadays, are we turning to a more European way of living? Well, I believe, as a country, we are. In fact, homeownership could be affecting your health! The UK, according to Bloomberg, is only the 21^st healthiest country in the world. Germany is at No.10 and Switzerland is at No.4 and homeownership is at 52.5% and 44% respectively in those countries (in the UK it is 64.8%).

In the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council area, 72.16% of homeowners, who own their house outright, said they were in ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health whilst, at the other end of the scale, 7.05% said their health was ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’. Looking at renting, the census splits tenants into two types – 68.23% of Solihull local authority/social tenants said they were in ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health and 11.97% were in ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ health …

… whilst ‘private rented tenants’ in Solihull, were the healthiest, as 87.39% described themselves as in ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health and a mere 3.56% were in ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ health

I am not suggesting, of course, that low homeownership rates in Switzerland and Germany are directly linked to health, nor, do I expect Brits to all go to Berlin, Interlaken or Düsseldorf and realise how happy people are when they don't need to worry about all the stresses which accompany home ownership. However, the numbers for Solihull do go some way to correlating the argument (and they are similar across the whole of the UK). Nonetheless I do think that, substantially, all of the upside to homeownership in recent years has been a function of monumental rising house prices. Now that's come to an end, it's hard to see why anybody would want to buy?

 Renting is here to stay in Solihull and it’s growing incrementally each year. Even with the new tax rules for landlords, buy to let is still an incredibly viable investment option for most people in the town. 2016 is a great time to purchase a buy to let property in Solihull, but I advise you to buy wisely. Gone are the days that you would make profit on anything with four walls and a roof. Take advice, take opinion and do your research. One place to do this, is the Solihull Property Blog  http://solihullpropertyblog.blogspot.co.uk where you can read more articles like this and glean even more knowledge relating to the Solihull Property Market…