Only One In Ten Island Households Live In 'Genuinely Affordable' Social Housing

Only around one in ten households on the Isle of Wight live in ‘genuinely affordable’ social rent housing, according to the latest data.

Figures show Island housing has become markedly less affordable since 2002.

Less than half of Isle of Wight households own their home outright and over a fifth of households are in the private rental sector.

There has also been a spike in annual private rents in recent years.

The statistics from the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the extent of the Island’s housing crisis amid efforts by County Hall to address the problem.

Last month, county councillors voted to agree and adopt a Land and Property Asset Disposal Policy – a framework to ensure council land and property assets are used to prioritise the delivery of social housing wherever possible.

Housing charity Shelter defines social rent homes as ‘genuinely affordable’ and provided by either not-for-profit housing associations or the local council.

JSNA findings show the housing affordability ratio, which compares house prices with median incomes, has increased by 58.3 per cent between 2002 and 2023 – the higher it is the less affordable housing has become.

The Island’s ratio was 9.5 in 2023, the latest data year, compared to 8.3 for England as a whole.

Meanwhile, ONS figures show Isle of Wight annual private rent increases have spiked between January 2016 and June this year.

Yearly private rental price inflation was 0.8 per cent in January 2016 and seven per cent in June 2025.