69% of renters still plan to buy a home, says property rewards platform Vaboo.
As the rising costs of living continues to make its mark on the property landscape, there has been much speculation over the trajectory of the rental market and how plans to buy have been affected by the financial crisis and costly mortgages. In contradiction, falling house prices, rental increases and favourable deals for first time buyers, has meant trying to predict trends for 2023 has become almost impossible for both Sales and Letting Agents.
A survey of over 11,000 tenants aged 18 to 65 about their plans to buy was undertaken by Vaboo (a PropTech company that creates customer reward and engagement platforms for letting agents) between August and December 2022. Despite the unpredictable market, some very consistent results were revealed.
The survey established that whilst 84% of respondents were worried about the rising costs of living, 7% of those tenants that are planning to become homeowners, were already in the process of looking for a property to buy as soon as possible. The data also revealed that almost 20% would be looking to buy in 2023.
CEO at Vaboo Jonathan Stein commented " We have thousands of tenants on the platform who regularly respond to questions about their future plans and need for additional services. On average, for every 100 tenants looking to buy, we find 10 who want to purchase a property in the next 6 months and a further 8 who want to buy within 12 months.”
As expected, many tenants are holding out to see if 2023 might bring more stability to the market, with an additional 20% looking to buy in the next 2 years.
It has been widely forecasted that the financial crisis will result in tenants being unable to save to buy their own home. Indeed, the data collected by Vaboo showed there had been an 8% increase in long-term rentals. In comparison to the 23% of tenants surveyed in 2020, 31% of respondents in 2022 said that they would be renting long term.
Jonathan concluded "The ability for our clients to uncover key data to help grow, uncover revenue generating data and monetise their business has been key in an unpredictable market. Now more than ever, agents need to be analysing their own customer data and developing relationships, to be the agent of choice to help with prospective customer needs.”
Find out how Vaboo can help your agency here.
