Analysing data on housing tenure is problematical for a number of reasons. As is often the case there are issues about the data.
An important source is the census but other sources such as the Annual estimate of tenure from ONS provide a means of assessing housing tenure and use of dwellings.

What do the figures tell us?
The comparison below shows data from the census and annual estimates from ONS. Different data sources give different results but overall the total dwelling figures are very close, which indicates a high degree of reliability.
What are the main points to emerge from the data? Firstly, the census gives 30,600 fewer owning a property. This is because the census records dwellings with households; the ONS estimate is total dwellings. The main component of this is accounted for by properties owned outright where the census has 26,400 fewer.
Of the 196,500, 166,000 are used on a permanent basis with 30,600 either used as second homes – 13,260 [Council tax base data], and 7,700 used as holiday lets, resulting with 9,640 other dwellings.
Private rented totals are 7,700 lower. This is a consequence of the ONS figure including holiday lets as well as dwellings rented out on a permanent basis. Presumably these 7,700 are owned either outright or with a mortgage.
Social rented totals are very similar. ONS data [Table 100] shows 252,900 dwellings in the private sector, 37,600 higher than the 215,300 estimated in the census – derived from adding the ‘Owned total’ to the ‘Private rent’ figure. This is some 2,500 higher than the unoccupied total in the census.
Source/Tenure | Census 2021 HH | ONS annual estimates (2021) | Difference |
Private sector | 215300 | *252900 | -37600 |
Owned outright | 104700 | 131000 | -26400 |
Owned with mortgage | 61300 | 65500 | -4200 |
Owned total | 166000 | 196500 | -30600 |
Social rent | 32000 | 32600 | -600 |
Rent free | 200 | 0 | 0 |
Shared ownership | 2900 | 0 | 0 |
Private rent | 49400 | 57100 | -7700 |
Unoccupied cen 21 | 35100 | 0 | 35100 |
Total | 285600 | 286200 | -600 |
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