Press Release Summary = Demand for rental property far outstripped supply in the three month period ending May 31st 2007, according to figures released today by an industry body.
Press Release Body = Demand for rental property far outstripped supply in the three month period ending May 31st 2007, according to figures released today by an industry body.
A survey of Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla) members found that many had been forced to turn potential tenants away due to a lack of available properties.
All types of property - including detached, semi-detached and terraced houses as well as flats - were in increased demand. Demand was particularly pronounced in the capital, with over two-thirds of landlords in central London reporting rising rent prices.
Those operating in the surrounding south-east regions reported much the same figures, while across the nation as a whole, agents reported rent hikes of between 33 and 35 per cent.
Rising demand means that the average void period for a buy-to-let property in the UK is now just 24 days, according to Arla. Tenants are on average staying in rented properties for over a year, with the longest times being recorded in central London at an average of 17.7 months. The south east logged 15.2 months and the rest of the nation just over 14.
Adrian Turner, chief executive of the body, commented: \"There is a shortage of all forms of housing in this country and these results show that the shortage of good quality property is also apparent in the rented sector.
\"The average capital asset values of rented houses rose during the past three months by 2.2 per cent in prime central London, 0.3 per cent in the south east and, by contrast, fell by 3.9 per cent in the rest of the UK.\"
Arla recently profiled the average buy-to-let investor as a mature investor, over 35 years old and someone who is cautious and looking for a secure long-term investment. The body claimed that more and more people are being attracted to the market and predicts that the number of tenancies on the market is set to grow by around three per cent each year over the next ten years.
According to figures released last week by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, 330,000 buy-to-let mortgages, worth a total of £38.4 billion, were taken out in 2006. Mortgage lenders, adapting to the increasing popularity of property as an investment, are also increasingly offering a mortgage product billed as let-to-buy, that allows the investor to borrow against the value of their home to secure a rental property.
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