A director of leading letting agents in Britain has warned that rents will continue to increase over the coming months.
Adrian Gill, director of Your Move and Reeds Rains, feels that there will be a cut in housing supply in the private rental sector, with many buy-to-let landlords leaving the market.
Alterations
According to Gill, the recent tax changes, including the additional stamp duty charges, is driving many residential landlords out of the sector. This is turn is set to drive up an early chronic shortage of properties in many areas.
Mr Gill notes that, ‘ultimately, this will only punish tenants, driving out buy to let landlords will reduce supply leading to lower choice and higher rents for those that can least afford them.’
He went on to observe that Spring represents the calm before the summer storm, with demand for homes in the sector driven by a flow of jobs and a flux of a general more mobile workforce.
‘This reflects the strengths of private renting, the opportunity for young, independent adults to strike out on their own, or for families to move across the country and earn the best possible livelihood. In the towns and cities with the biggest renting populations it is a constant struggle for supply from landlords to match demand from tenants. With a surge in jobs and local economic activity, rents rise. Keeping pace will not be easy and will depend on the freedom to invest as a landlord,’ Gill added.[1]
High demand and low supply to drive rents up
Restraint
Just last week, a survey from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) found that 65% of landlords will not look to purchase any more buy-to-let properties in light of the tax alterations.
61% of ARLA agents said that rents will rise even further as a result of the tax changes.
David Cox, director of ARLA, said, ‘whilst landlords adjust to the increase in costs we can expect to see one of three outcomes prevailing in the buy-to-let market: landlords absorbing the cost and taking the hit; landlords withdrawing from the market causing supply to fall; or landlords regaining those costs through hiking rents. Next month we can start to assess the damage.’[1]
[1] https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2016/5/rents-set-to-rise-as-demand-grows-and-supply-falls