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The Rise Of The “Forever Renter” And What This Means For The Market


The biggest shift in the property market is a growing number of people who could buy, deciding not to. For a hundred years, the property industry has run on one assumption: renting is a waiting room, ownership is the destination. That assumption no longer holds.


TheC clearest evidence is in how renters describe their own choice. Entrata's April 2026 survey of over 2,000 US renters found 81% now call renting the smarter financial move — up from 72% among Gen Z a year earlier — and 71% say the American Dream itself is evolving. That's not the language of people settling. It's the language of people redefining what winning looks like.


It would be easy to file this under the usual "priced out" story. Yes, affordability explains why someone can't buy; it doesn't explain why a wealthy individual, or a dual-income professional couple with a healthy deposit sitting in savings, chooses to keep renting anyway. That is a preference, not a constraint and this is what the market is built around.


What makes this different from every "generation rent" story before it is who is choosing it: young professionals renting for the flexibility to move for work; wealthy households keeping capital liquid rather than locking it into one asset; internationally mobile executives who need to relocate on six weeks' notice, not sixteen. RentCafe's analysis of US Census data found millionaire renter households grew 204% between 2019 and 2023, to nearly 13,700 — outpacing the 169% growth in millionaire homeowners over the same period.


The intent data confirms it from the other direction. Rently's 2026 Renting by Generation Report found mortgage plans among renters have fallen from roughly 15% to just 6.4% in a year, and a third of millennial and Gen Z non-owners now say they may never buy — not out of despair, but as a settled plan. In the UK, the House of Commons Library found 59% of 35-to-54-year-olds are unsure whether they'll ever own — a cohort that, a generation ago, would already be two or three houses into ownership.


Capital has read this correctly, even where the industry has been slower to build for it. UK build-to-rent investment hit a record £5.3 billion in 2025; Q1 2026 alone brought in £795 million, the strongest first quarter since 2022, with full-year volumes forecast at £5.7 billion. Occupancy sits near 97%, and rental premiums have nearly doubled since 2016. Institutional money doesn't move at that pace toward something it expects to be temporary, and it isn't moving toward the bottom of the market — it's moving toward the buildings, cities and price points where forever renters actually want to live.


For agents, developers and operators, the implication is simple: a market built to sell people out of renting can't also be the market that serves them well inside it. Buildings need to be run, staffed and designed as though the tenant intends to stay — because increasingly, they do. That means service standards, amenity design and lease flexibility built for years of tenancy, not for the few months before a deposit clears. Relationships that used to end at completion now need to extend across years of renewal and relocation. Firms that treat this as a smaller version of the old business will lose the client to whoever treats it as the real one.


This isn't about people giving up on a home. It's about the definition of home changing, permanently, for a meaningful share of the market, at every income level. The winners of the next decade won't be the ones still using renting as a rehearsal for ownership. They'll be the ones built for people who intend to rent well.


Article: By Mohamed Mussa, Managing Director, Chestertons Global



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M&S opens the doors to its biggest ever standalone Food store in Godalming, Surrey, as it continues to invest in bigger, better stores that help more family customers complete their weekly shop at M&S.


The brand-new 22,000sq ft Foodhall, located in The Wharf Retail Park, Woolsack Way, opened

and brings the full M&S Food range together under one roof. The store is a former Homebase site and forms part of M&S’s wider investment in new and renewed stores to modernise its estate, create larger Foodhalls and make M&S more relevant for families doing more of their weekly shop.


Godalming showcases the next generation of the M&S Food stores, with a brighter, easier-to-shop layout and more space for customers to browse the products they buy every week. The store includes wider fresh produce areas, multi-temperature zones in herbs, organic and fruit, a larger in-store bakery, an enhanced cheese barge, a dedicated chicken shop, Mai Sushi, a rotisserie chicken counter, a new kitchen shop with family kitchen essentials and an upgraded beers, wines and spirits shop-in-shop.


Designed around how modern families shop, the store has more room for weekly shop missions, improved customer flow and a broader mix of everyday essentials. Alongside the full M&S Food range, the store will carry the full Remarksable Value range, which has expanded to 175 products, with everyday shopping-list staples benchmarked against competitor prices while maintaining the quality, sourcing, ingredient and welfare standards customers expect from M&S.


Customers will also find a series of new and upgraded areas designed to make the store feel easier to shop in, from fresh market-style produce and bakery counters to kitchen essentials, floral and horticulture, frozen fruit, pet food, organic ranges and family-friendly features including mini trolleys for children.


To mark the opening, the Godalming team welcomed a queue of customers from 8am, with opening-day activity including a giant inflatable Percy Pig outside the store and special Godalming tote bags for the first customers.


Alex Freudmann, Managing Director of M&S Food, said:

“We’re doubling our Food business with investment where family customers are asking for it most: bigger, better stores and more trusted value on the products families buy every week."

“Godalming is our biggest ever standalone Food store and an example of the kind of modern, full-range Foodhall we’re investing in as we double the size of the business. It brings together the full M&S Food range, more space for the weekly shop and the latest store design so customers can get everything they need in one trip, without compromising on the M&S quality they expect.”


Amelia Holiwell, Store Manager at M&S Godalming, said: 

“We welcomed so many excited customers this morning at Godalming, and I’m so pleased that they all had a fantastic reaction to the new store. The team of 80 new colleagues has worked incredibly hard to get the store ready and we’re really proud to open a Foodhall that brings the very best of M&S Food to Godalming, from fresh produce and bakery to family favourites, great value and everyday essentials.”

The store is open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 9pm and Sunday from 10am to 4pm.

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