The number of pensioners who are renting privately has risen to 8% compared with 5.2% in 2007, figures from Countrywide show.
A second report, by professor Steve Wilcox for the Chartered Institute of Housing, estimates up to a third of those aged 60 will be in rented accommodation by 2040.
He predicts huge proportions of pensioners who never own their own home, and warns of the impact on housing benefit costs.
