What was claimed
Most people who own a house, own one house.
Our verdict
Correct for England, we haven’t yet sourced this for the rest of the UK.
Do most people own one house?
10 November 2017
“Most people who own a house, which is the majority of the population, own one house.”
Charles Moore, 9 November 2017
This is basically right. The majority of households in the UK own their home, as opposed to renting. Households in the UK had 2.4 people on average in 2016. Most owner-occupiers in England only have one house.
63% of English households own the home they live in, which may be a house or a flat. The last time the proportion was lower than this was in 1985. The number of owner-occupiers has been broadly the same since 2012/13.
The latest data on second home ownership in England is from 2013/14. 2.3 million households report having a second property, while 674,000 had a “second home” (meaning they mainly used it as a holiday home or let it out to others). Second homes data will be collected again in the 2017-18 survey.
That would mean most English owner-occupiers only have one home.
In Scotland, 61% of households own the home they live in. And for Northern Ireland, it is 66%. We haven’t been able yet to source this data for Wales, or second home data outside of England.