If current trends hold, then the number of people in Europe renting housing will overtake those who are mortgaged owner-occupiers by 2024.

Residential specialist Greystar has highlighted statistics from Eurostat, showing that in 2010, 28 percent of the EU population were mortgaged owners, but by 2018 this figure had declined to 26 percent. During the same timeframe, market renters increased from 17 percent to 22 percent. The remaining 51.5 percent of the EU population in 2018 were either owner-occupiers without a mortgage (42.8 percent) or social renters (8.7 percent). The latter has given up the largest share to market renters since 2010, falling from 12 percent. The manager has calculated that market renters will overtake mortgage-owners in three years’ time, should residential rental growth rates continue at the same pace. Greystar also believes that this pattern could be accelerated by falling household savings and rising deposit requirements in the aftermath of the COV