June 3, 2009
Buy To Let Stabilises
After falling rents, rising vacancies, a general scarcity of buy-to-let loans and a deep recession, residential landlords can finally breathe a sigh of relief, as good news in the rental sector made headlines across Britain. According to a study conducted by FindaProperty.com, residential rental rates remained steady in May and hovered at an average of around £819 per month. This serves as very positive news for the rental sector, which has experienced steady drops in rental prices each month. The fact that rents are no longer falling indicates that the previously negative trend may have come to an end. Nevertheless, rents have fallen noticeably throughout the UK this year and the average decline over the past 12 months stands at 5.5 percent. FindaProperty’s extensive study looked at 414,000 buy-to-let properties, when determining the change in average rent.
One of the reasons why rental rates are starting to stabilize is related to the fact that fewer new buy-to-let properties are being listed than a year ago. The phenomenon of the so-called “accidental landlord” surfaced in earnest in late 2008, when a growing number of home-owning Britons decided to try their luck for the first time in the buy-to-let sector, instead of selling their property at a time when values were deeply depressed.
The situation for landlords seems to be improving at the fastest pace in Scotland, where average monthly rents increased by 0.9 percent between April and May. The state of the buy-to-let sector is also looking much healthier in the West Midlands, where rents rose by 0.3 percent. Increases in London, however, were much more modest.
Source: LandLordExpert
