HIGH house prices, the need for a hefty deposit and lack of access to mortgage finance have all undeniably contributed to the creation of "Generation Rent", but not everyone is stuck in the trap – 30% of UK tenants choose to rent rather than buy according to the latest data.
It may well be officially £120 cheaper to own your home today then rent (Halifax, January 2012) but bricks and mortar is never a simple numbers game and now nearly a third of UK renters actively choose this path because they don't want the commitment of buying a property.
A case in point is Charlotte Ashton, 31, who has lived rented accommodation for more than 10 years now.
She explains: "While it is my ultimate aspiration to get on the property ladder at some point, I have chosen to live in rented accommodation for all of my adult life. The freedom, flexibility and being able to rely on the landlord to repair any problems has been a real draw for me, and with house prices in London skyrocketing, there is no way I could ever live where I do unless I rented."
Charlotte has lived happily in her five-bedroom property in Shepherd's Bush, West London since 2009, a trend also seen in lettings agent Upad's Tenant Survey (January 2013), which revealed that 39% of UK tenants expected to rent for three years or more.
With the survey also showing that nearly half of all UK tenants pay more than 30% of their salaries to rent, finding the perfect property is essential. Forty-seven per cent of tenants start looking for their next new home two months or more before they have to move and expect to see on average 16 properties during their search.
As James Davis, chief executive of Upad and a landlord for 14 years, said: "With rents escalating across the country, tenants are becoming increasingly fussy about the properties they rent and rightly so – living standards should be the same for owners and tenants alike.
"I am always asked to provide tenants with photos of the property and this and other advertisement features rank highly, with 93% of tenants believing photos to be either very important or essential, 72% stating distance to transport links and 58% a broadband connection."