On 7 July, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities published its estimate of the number of leasehold dwellings in England in 2020-21.
The table below summarises the latest data compared with 2019-20
2020-21 | 2019-20 |
4.86 million Leasehold dwellings in England or 18% of English housing stock. | 4.6 million Leasehold dwellings in England or 19% of the English housing stock. |
2.82 million dwellings (58%) were in the owner occupied sector | 2.6 million dwellings (56%) were in the owner occupied sector |
1.79 million (37%) were privately owned and let in the private rented sector. | 1.8 million (43%) were privately owned and let in the private rented sector. * |
256,000 (6%) were dwellings owned by social landlords and let in the social rented sector. | 269,000 (6%) were dwellings owned by social landlords and let in the social rented sector. |
71% (3.44 million) were leasehold flats. | 68% (2.9 million) were leasehold flats. |
29% (1.42 million) were leasehold houses. | 32% (1.5 million) were leasehold houses. |
At regional level, London and the North West had the highest proportion of leasehold dwellings, at 35% and 31% respectively, significantly higher than all other regions in England which had between 8% and 17%.
The proportion of leasehold houses also varied by region. Most notably, 27% of houses in the North West were owned on a leasehold basis, a significantly greater proportion than in any other region (the next highest was 9% in Yorkshire and the Humber). However, the North West had a smaller proportion of leasehold flats (50%) than London (61%), the South East and East of England (both 65%). In 2019-20, 28% of houses in the North West were owned on a leasehold basis. For flats, proportions ranged from 43% in Yorkshire and the Humber to 63% in the South East.
Between 2015-16 and 2017-18, the number of leasehold dwellings was around 4.3 million. The number of leasehold dwellings increased between 2018-19 and 2020-21, from 4.47 million to 4.86 million.