Welcome boost for buy-to-let
A Staffordshire estate agency has hailed new figures, which suggest that demand for rental properties is back on the increase, as a welcome boost to the buy-to-let sector.
The latest RICS Lettings Survey paints a more positive picture for the rental market, with fewer new properties coming up for rent for the second quarter in a row, prompting an increase in demand and leaving the door wide open for new buy-to-let homeowners.
What's more, a long period of falling rents looks set to reverse as chartered surveyors are now reporting stabilising rental incomes, with overall rents neither rising nor falling.
Heywoods Property, a Newcastle-based estate agency and lettings specialist, put the change in fortunes down a knock-on effect from the mini revival in the housing market.
The company said that many accidental landlords that had come about because of the turbulent events of the last 18 months were now moving away from the lettings market and putting their properties back up for sale, leaving a gap in the market for buy-to-let.
It also added that the high deposits demanded by lenders and tighter lending criteria meant that many potential first-time buyers were unable to get a foothold on the property ladder, thereby pushing up demand for rented property even further.