South-east sees largest swing from homeownership to renting Bournemouth saw an 11% increase in the number of private renters from 2001 to 2011 - in common with many areas in the south-east of England. Photograph: Roy Rainford/Getty Images/Robert Harding World Imagery Slough, Bournemouth and the London borough of Brent are among the "generation rent" hotspots where younger people are most likely to struggle to buy a property, research seen exclusively by the Guardian suggests. These three areas were among the places that had seen the largest swing from homeownership to private renting between 2001 and 2011, according to Experian Marketing Services, which used the most recent census information and its own data to come up with the findings. Slough saw a 14% increase in private renting, and a corresponding fall in homeownership, over the 10-year period, with Brent and fellow London borough Enfield sharing second place with a 12% increase. Five other local authorities - Bournemouth, Luton, the London borough of Ealing, Watford and Cardiff - saw a 11% increase. "Those areas with the largest swing from ownership to private renting between 2001 and 2011 are overwhelmingly in the south-east of the country," said Experian, which named the City of London as the place in the UK with the largest proportion of privately rented properties, at 42%. Graphic: Experian In contrast, East Dorset, which includes the towns of Wimborne Minster and Ferndown, had the highest proportion of households that are outright homeowners (49%). The local authority areas that saw the biggest increases in outright ownership over the same period were largely outside the south-east and, typically, were semi-rural locations. Copeland in Cumbria topped this list with a 7% increase in outright ownership between 2001 and 2011, followed by south Staffordshire (6%). However, Maldon in Essex bucked the regional trend and saw a 5.8% increase, taking the ownership total to 40%. Experian said the largest swings from ownership to private renting since 2001 were among key groups of young adults, such as those typically in their 20s who had recently started work, and those who have traditionally bought first homes in city centres on former brownfield sites. Generation rent are the 20- to 40-year-olds who cannot get a foot on the housing ladder as a result of rising house prices and mortgage lenders' demands for a big deposit. Research issued earlier in June claimed the cost of renting a home in England and Wales was rising faster than the rate of inflation, with the average monthly outlay up 3.5% in the 12 months to May.