More than one in eight of us now live alone, and it is changing the kind of houses developers are building.
More than one in eight of us now live alone, with the surge in solitary homeowners and renters outstripping the general rise in the UK population. There are 8.4 million people living alone, that is 13 per cent of all households.
This has gone up by 620,000 in ten years, an increase of about 8 per cent. The population of the UK has gone up by 6 per cent in that time, according to the Office for National Statistics. It is forecast that by 2039 there will be 10.7 million people living alone in the UK.
But it’s not affluent young professionals leading this demographic charge — it’s older people. Those aged 65 and over account for 93 per cent of the growth in single-person households in the past decade. And more than twice as many men — an increase of 415,000 compared with 204,000 women — went solo between 2013 and 2023.
The number of people aged between 25 and 44 living alone fell from 18.8 per cent in 2013 to 17.5 per cent in 2023. Several affluent London postcodes are singleton territory, with more than half the occupants of the City (51 per cent) going it alone, followed by Kensington and Chelsea (43.7 per cent) and Westminster (42.7 per cent).
The national average is 30 per cent. But there are interesting outliers, according to the property consultancy JLL. These include Norwich, where 38.9 per cent of households are single, and the Lancashire seaside resort of Blackpool (38 per cent).
In a report last year, local services in Blackpool identified “an oversupply of poor-quality one-person accommodation and limited choice of family housing”. In Norwich, where a high proportion (15 per cent) of over-65s live alone, many students from the city’s two universities stay on after graduating, according to Mason Burrell from the local estate agency Brown & Co. “Norwich is well suited [to single living] in that it has a large number of terraced houses, starter homes and one-bedroom apartments.”
The estate agency Hamptons analyzed claims for the single person council tax discount, which entitles occupiers to 25 per cent off their bill, and found that Blackpool and South Tyneside, where 42 per cent claim, followed by Norwich and the Kent coastal town of Hastings, with 40 per cent, were at the forefront.
“Areas where people are most likely to live alone tend to have more elderly populations,” says Aneisha Beveridge from Hamptons. “Whereas areas with fewer single occupants are some of the most unaffordable parts of the country and/or suburban hotspots, which tend to be dominated by families.”
10.7 Million: Projected number of single UK households by 2039
People living alone are less likely to own their home. This is largely down to affordability. In 2024 the average income for a mortgaged household was 66 per cent higher than that of a single person, down from 75 per cent in 2022 and from the 20-year high of 90 per cent in 2015, according to the estate agency Savills. A single person in full-time employment would need to borrow seven times their annual earnings to purchase the average property in the UK. This rises to more than nine times their salary in London and the southeast. “There is a clear, marked disparity in earnings, and hence borrowing power, between a mortgaged household and that of the average single person,” says Nick Maud, the director of research at Savills. “Our data presents a stark illustration of the significant challenges faced by single people in accessing debt and therefore the housing market, compared with households that include two or more working people. “Those priced out of the owner occupier market, either through circumstance or lifestyle choice, turn to the rental market, which places further strain on a sector which is already experiencing a constriction in supply.” Requirements for renting differ by age. “We find singles under 30 are generally more open to living in a flatshare and often team up with a friend to find a suitable property,” says Adam Jennings, the head of lettings at the estate agency Chestertons. “Singles aged 30 and over tend to have a more established career path and larger budget. The majority of this age group favors living alone and are in a financial position to do so. “Younger tenants don’t always plan to live in their flat long-term, while singles aged 30 and over want to create more of a home and are looking to sign long-term tenancy agreements of two years and more.” Not enough new homes are being built to meet the increase in single households. Apartments make up 40 to 45 per cent of all new homes, according to the Home Builders Federation, a trade body. “But significant constraints remain,” according to its chief executive, Neil Jefferson. “Planning policy changes are welcome, but a lack of affordable mortgage lending is suppressing demand.” Although touted as an affordable answer for single buyers, shared ownership homes, whereby people buy a portion of the property and pay rent on the rest, represented less than 1 per cent of households in the 2020 English Housing Survey. Build to rent (BTR), when properties are purpose-built for the rental market, is becoming a popular option, with more than 265,000 either finished, in the pipeline or planning. “According to our joint research with Savills, BTR is in the new-homes pipeline for 67 per cent of local authorities,” says Ian Fletcher, the director of policy at the British Property Federation, a trade organization. “These homes cater to people living solo, providing well-maintained properties and security of tenure. But they are primarily located in towns and commuter hubs, meaning there will be areas of the country where options for people to live alone will be constrained.” Fletcher highlights both BTR and co-living projects, such as the developments by the London firm Pocket Living, where 88 per cent of buyers are single and paying at least 20 per cent below market value — £232,000 to £300,000 for one-bedroom apartments — as important building blocks in addressing the needs of singletons. “Another consideration is the effect on mental health and loneliness,” Fletcher says. “We hear a lot that the communities in co-living and BTR are an important part of why people choose to live there. You get the best of both worlds, a place of your own and communal spaces.”
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