The TwentyCi Q1 2026 Property & Homemover Report showed that on average, UK homeowners save £493 per month compared to tenants, widening to nearly £1,000 per month in London.
Colin Bradshaw, CEO of TwentyCi, said: “The real story for 2026 is the sheer necessity of homeownership.
“When renting costs nearly 50% of take-home pay, the drive for mortgage approval remains the primary financial goal for UK households.”
‘Affordability paradox’
The report showed what Bradshaw called an “affordability paradox”, where although mortgage rates have gone up – which makes mortgages harder to obtain – it’s still cheaper to buy than to rent.
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Rental costs now consume a record 45.5% of median disposable income, the report showed.
TwentyCi said this has prompted a “critical shift” in the lending landscape, where major lenders have moved towards higher income multiples to support buyers with good credit ratings.
These include Nationwide, Halifax and Barclays, which have all moved towards 5.5 and six times income multiples for borrowers.
These products have moved from “niche” to “necessary”, the report noted, particularly in areas in the South, where housing stock is tightest.
Surge in supply
Other themes in the report include a surge in new instructions, with a 5.1% increase year-on-year. In the South East, there has been a nearly 9% increase in stock on the market.
It has also become slower to buy a house. The average time to exchange has crept up to 134 days – a seven-day increase year-on-year. This highlights the urgent need for the industry to adopt digital infrastructure and upfront property information to protect mortgage offers from expiring, Bradshaw noted.
Despite global instability leading to interest rates on mortgages being speedily withdrawn and fixed rates surging above 5%, the market is not frozen, although Bradshaw said this had acted as a “cooling influence, particularly in London”.
“With supply up 5% and transactions tracking higher than both 2023 and 2024, the market is continuing to tick along nicely,” he said.
