For seven decades, from the First World War until the end of the 1980s, the privately rented housing sector in England declined in both relative and absolute terms. During this period, it changed from being the main housing tenure, accommodating approximately nine out of ten households, to being a residual sector in which less than one in ten households resided. The aim of this paper is to address this puzzle. It asks: how is it that free-market rents and weak security of tenure are perceived to be vital ingredients for a successful PRS in England, The next section briefly summarizes key characteristics of the political economies and housing systems in these two countries.