"London has a well-known and fully blown housing crisis, but the struggle to buy a home is just as big a problem in cities across the North of England."
National homeownership had fallen to 63.8% by February this year, from a peak of 70.8% in 2003.
The Foundation believes that the widely reported increase in home ownership in 2014 was "likely a blip to correct a sharp fall the year before, rather than a welcome reversal of a long standing trend".
Greater Manchester, South and West Yorkshire and the West Midlands Metropolitan area have all experienced double digit falls since their early 2000s peak.
Back in 2003, 72% households living in Greater Manchester were owners – slightly above the average across England as a whole. However, homeownership has since plummeted by 14 percentage points – almost twice as fast as it has in England – so that by last year just 58% of households living in Manchester owned their own home.
The fall in home ownership has corresponded with a near doubling in the proportion of private renters across England, up from 11% in 2003 to 19% in 2015. The proportion of households renting privately in Greater Manchester has more than trebled over that period – from 6% to 20% – while Outer London and West Yorkshire have also reported double digit growth.
The Foundation says that the shift from home ownership to private renting "is concerning for a number of reasons", including households in the PRS spending a far higher share of their income on housing than those with a mortgage (30% compared to 23%).
The Foundation’s analysis follows an English Housing Survey report last week, which found that two–thirds of private and social renters cited affordability as a barrier to home ownership.
Stephen Clarke, Policy Analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “London has a well-known and fully blown housing crisis, but the struggle to buy a home is just as big a problem in cities across the North of England.
“The chances of owning a home have fallen fastest in Greater Manchester over the last decade, though the Leeds and Sheffield city areas have also experienced sharp drops.
“These drops are more than a simple source of frustration for the millions of people who aspire to own their home. The shift to renting privately can reduce current living standards and future wealth, with implications for individuals and the state.
“We cannot allow other cities to edge towards the kind of housing crisis that London has been saddled with. It’s encouraging that the new Prime Minister has talked about tackling the housing deficit. She may find that making good on this promise could secure as important a legacy as negotiating a successful exit from the European Union.”
