26% of Haywards Heath 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 and as the rate of home-ownership is starting to drop substantially, and as we roll the clock forward to today there is no stigma at all to renting. Everyone is doing it. In fact, of the 33,477 residents of Haywards Heath, 8,764 of you rent your house from either the local authority/social provider (i.e. council house or housing association) or private landlords – meaning 26.17% of Haywards Heath people are tenants.

The idea of home-ownership is deeply embedded in the British soul; in fact 24,048 Haywards Heath people live in an owner occupied property (or 71.83%). Housing is at the heart of Government policy, as George Osborne has promised 200,000 new properties a year so first time buyers can buy their first home whilst recently changing the tax laws for buy to let landlords. To get votes, Thatcher (and everyone since) ran election campaigns promising everybody their own home, and as a country, we seem to equate home-ownership the goal 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, home-ownership 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 at No.4 and home-ownership is at 52.5% and 44% respectively in those countries (in the UK it is 64.8%).

In the Mid Sussex District Council area, 78.13% of homeowners who own their house outright said they were in ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health whilst, at the other end of the scale, 4.69% said their health was ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’. Looking at renting, the census splits tenants into two types – 73.13% of Mid Sussex local authority/social tenants said they were in ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health and 8.89% were in ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ health.

Whilst ‘private rented tenants’ in Mid Sussex, were the healthiest, as 89.49% of them described themselves in ‘very good’ or ‘good’ health and only 2.57% were in ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ health.(Please note the health % don’t add up to 100% as there is a middle category of health – for people who have ‘Fair’ health)

I am not suggesting that low home-ownership 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. The numbers for Haywards Heath do go some way to back up the argument (and they are the same across the whole of the UK). Nonetheless I do think that substantially all of the upside to home-ownership 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 Haywards Heath and it’s growing incrementally each year. Even with the new tax rules for landlords, buy to let is still a viable investment option for most people in the town. There has never been a better time to buy buy to let property in Haywards Heath, but buy wisely. Gone are the days that you would make profit on anything with four walls and a roof. Take advice, take opinion, do your homework.