Consumer Trends: Homeowners vs Renters, how to Target Consumers On and Off the Ladder

Getting on the property ladder means different things for different people. There was a time, not so long ago, that it was a laudable but very achievable aim for most of the population. Now, however, the news is frequently home to headlines about Generation Rent, as property prices have soared and younger generations struggle to afford house deposits.

A study by the Resolution Foundation think tank stated that home ownership has been declining since 2002, and that in 2017 only 51% of families lived in owned homes.

While Baby Boomers have grown used to homeownership, having bought homes in young adulthood, under-40s may only have recently bought a home, or may still be renting. This way of living—paying a mortgage, and then paying nothing at all, vs paying rent to a landlord—naturally has an effect on behaviours, attitudes and values.

Homeowners are tied to one property for the foreseeable future; renters have the option to move on at any time (but also the fear of eviction). Homeowners are already putting money into an asset they can use in the future; renters will need other ways of saving since they have no stake in the property. Homeowners have to take total responsibility for their home and the financial risk owning a home carries; renters aren’t tied down by these strings but also live without the security this brings.

It’s not just generational lines along which this homeowner/renter divide falls. The Centre for Ageing Better predicts that a third of people over 60 will be living in private rented accommodation by 2040. This is due to people downsizing from family homes to more manageable properties. Some want to live closer to amenities; some want to free up wealth to pass on to their family; others want to move area.

How does the uniting fact of either renting or owning a home span across generations and demographics? It’s a major life-affecting difference that’s likely to influence other areas of how people think and act.

Read on to discover more about the views of renters and homeowners, and to see where they converge and where they differ. By obtaining a fuller understanding of the behaviours and interests of these two specific sectors, you will be better able to target them in your marketing and branding, tailoring your offering to each of their preferences.

Interests and Behaviours

Media habits

What personality traits and behaviours divide those that own their homes, and those that rent them? And how can brands tailor their messaging depending on whether they wish to target buyers or renters?

As it turns out, renters and homeowners have near-identical preference in news stories. Showbiz & Lifestyle news was voted as the most read style of story by both camps of respondents, with quite a strong lead of 27.6%. The next most popular news type is Family & Education news with a vote of 16.5%, followed by Sports with 14.2%.

The small differences that exist between these two demographics, with regards to their preferred news stories, include that renters slightly prefer Culture (9.6%, over the average of 7.6%) and have less of a preference for Technology & Science news (10%, versus the average of 12.1%) and Political news (6.5% compared to the average of 8.1%). Conversely, homeowners do enjoy Technology & Science news (14.2%) and Political coverage (9.6%), while the preference for Culture drops (to 5.7%).

The most popular social media platform, across both renters and homeowners, living in flats and houses, is Facebook. The social media platform received 53.3% of the total vote, putting it more than twice as far ahead of the next most popular site, Instagram, with 21.4%. The least popular social media site, across all four key demographic divisions, is Tumblr.

The demographic segment most breaking the mould are those who own a flat, where Facebook and Instagram were almost tied for first place, receiving 30.1% and 27.4% of the vote respectively.

The difference between renters and homeowners in their use of social media is far less significant than the difference between other demographic divisions. For instance, while both men and women rank Facebook first and Instagram second, after this point their opinions diverge. Women then prefer Snapchat, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Tumblr (in that order). Men, however, rank their remaining favourites as Twitter, Snapchat, Reddit, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

Property-Specific Habits and Interests

While most people are in a stable-enough financial situation to move out of their parent’s house, and rent their own place or room, the entry level to becoming a homeowner is decidedly higher.

As such, does the way renters and property owners approach the property market differ? Perhaps their priorities vary, when they’re in the market for a new house to rent or own, or their go-to brands that they’re happy to impart their hard-earned cash to.

Starting with consumers’ first touch with property brands, we asked respondents where they most like to see property-specific adverts. Most consumers (34.4%) like to see property adverts displayed on websites. A further 18.1% pay attention to property adverts on their TV and 17.7% notice the brands advertising on social media the most.

Although traditional newspaper adverts were ranked as the fourth most popular location for property brands to advertise overall (8.4%), only 6.1% of renters are heading to the papers to discover their next home, while 10.7% of homeowners are.

The good news for property brands currently advertising Out of Home (OOH), is that Londoners are more likely than those from any other region to pay attention here.

11% of Londoners like to see property brands advertising on billboards, and a further 11% like to see them on public transport, whereas the nationwide average is 7% for billboards and 4.2% for public transport.

For brands aiming at the affluent residents of the UK’s capital, where the average house price is £476,752, an OOH strategy might be key to winning a slice of this substantial market.

In some positive news for the High Street, 29.6% of consumers will head to a High Street lettings or estate agent as their first port of call when in the market for a new pad. Echoing this positive sentiment, 59.5% of consumers trust High Street property providers more than their online competitors. Although for the online property market to have already garnered trust from 38.2% of consumers, even despite the high stakes of buying or selling a property, and relative youth of many online property brands, is impressive.

The price range of the property might be a significant deciding factor in the level of trust afforded to the brand. Whether in the market to rent or buy, those who are living in flats (and so perhaps likely to do so again in their next property) are more likely to trust online retailers (43.7%) than those who live (both rented and owned) in houses, with a higher average ticket price (36.2%).

After High Street lettings and estate agents, those consumers in the market for a new property are most likely to turn to the opinions and recommendations of their friends and family (17.5%). This is slightly more true of renters (20.8%), who might also be more likely to find their solutions via Google (19.8%, versus the average of 16.6%). While homeowners might be less likely to seek recommendations from those closest to them (14.4%), they’re more likely than average (12.6%, over the average of 10.6%) to trust review and comparison websites.

Price points also make a significant difference in the attitudes of homeowners and renters to the reason for their next move. We asked consumers what will be the driving factor behind their next property move. While renters said in equal quantity (22%) that they’d move for either a bigger property or a lower rent, homeowners ranked a lower mortgage as only the 5th most motivating factor (10.6%), behind: a bigger property (26.4%), better quality property (17.9%), a better location (17.3%) and a bigger garden or outdoor space (11.2%).

Flat owners and renters are more likely than the average to opt for a better location (ranked second amongst consumers living in flats, with 20.4%), while house owners and renters are more likely than those in flats to move to a bigger property (25.5%).

When they’re looking for their dream property, both renters and owners are drawn to the brands with the lowest fees (24.7% of the total vote). In fact, the priorities of all consumers in the market for a new property, whether they intend to rent or buy, are well-matched. All four key demographics ranked either the convenience of High Street stores or the familiarity of the agent as the least important factors when deciding on a brand to trust with their move.

Property-Specific Brand Awareness

Where to live is an enormous decision. This is significantly more the case when we think about owning a home—with the cost of stamp duty, estate agent fees, and moving van costs factored in, it’s not a cheap process to get wrong. But even for renters, finding the right property that will meet all your needs and that you can settle down in for a number of years, is an important decision. The brands who help you to find, and buy or rent, property therefore need to be extremely well-regarded.

We asked people which property brand they think of most favourably. The results were as follows:

Homeowners favourite property brands

Renters favourite property brands

On the whole, across both homeowners and renters, big estate agent brands are well-known and well-liked. There’s great comfort in a logo you know, or a company you know a friend or colleague has used.

Notably, PurpleBricks, a relatively young company has done well to establish its reputation already, probably down to a large marketing campaign and their USP that they get rid of estate agent fees.

It is also striking that Persimmon performed well for renters, but was not mentioned by homeowners. The building company builds new homes, and market themselves very much towards first-time buyers and people downsizing. The appeal of a new build is clear: everything will work; everything will be under warranty; and you can stamp your own personality on it from when you move in. It’s clearly a company looking more towards those currently renting, and it’s good to see they’re succeeding in making a splash with their target audience.

We also asked everyone who they’d most like to see endorsing their preferred property brand:

British TV personalities did particularly well, perhaps because property is a very location-based market, so some of the big American names we often see in our Consumer Trends Report seem irrelevant.

Notably three of the top ten are presenters of property shows, with obvious expertise in the area. Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer are best known for presenting Location, Location Location, Sarah Beeny has presented a range of property shows, including Property Ladder.

Obviously influencers with the right credentials hold sway over homeowners and renters alike, and would be excellent targets for partnerships.

As shown by the rapid rise in brand awareness for PurpleBricks (the company was founded in 2012, making it very junior compared to the likes of Savills which was founded in 1855, or even Rightmove which was founded in 2000), there is huge scope for clever marketing to make a huge difference. This is a market where trust is important, but also where people are desperate to find the perfect deal both in terms of house, and price. If a site can market themselves as tech-savvy and ubiquitous, they may well be able to steal business off the older, fustier powerhouses.

The most memorable ads were for the following brands:

Key Takeaways

Homeowners are some of the most affluent consumers in the market, this is especially true of the younger generations of homeowners for whom it’s significantly harder to take that first step onto the property ladder. While less homeowners than renters are looking to move in the future (16.8% don’t believe they’ll move house again), those that do are substantially more likely to remain on the property ladder, with 71.1% claiming their next move will be to another owned house.

Meanwhile, the substantial rental market cannot be ignored. With only 11.8% of this consumer group claiming they’re unlikely to move house in the future, renters represent a significant opportunity to lettings brands. Even for estate agents, securing loyalty with this group, could mean you are front of mind for the 43.5% of renters who envisage purchasing their next property.

Renters and homeowners have some significantly divergent opinions, habits and sentiments to each other. For instance, the motivating factors driving renters to move (namely lower price of rent) are far from the minds of homeowners who would more likely move for a larger property, better location and even a larger outdoor space before they prioritise a lower mortgage.

There are, however, points at which other demographic divisions (including gender and location) account for a greater difference in results than the status of their home ownership. The priority of low fees, and unimportance of the familiarity of the agent, when they’re in the market for a new property, is just one example where the difference between the priorities of homeowners and renters is almost non-existent.

Understanding the points at which opinions converge and diverge will be vital for brands wanting to differentiate themselves from competitors, and stand out to individual segments of the market.

With the UK property market as fragile as it has been in recent months and years, as well as substantial competition to traditional agents offered by low- or no-fee, hassle-free online providers, it’s more important than ever for property brands of all shapes and sizes to be tracking the sentiment of their key consumers.

Targeting is both easy and free using the Attest platform, and can allow you to ask the questions you need answers to, to whomever matters most to your brand.

Easily uncover those consumers’ key purchase drivers, their preferences and priorities when shopping and their wider habits. Doing so can deliver rich insight into the lives of your key consumers, and allow you to optimise your strategy for speaking to them where, how and when is best for them.

Get in touch with Attest today to take the next step in scaling up your understanding of the market and your key consumers.