A report from the Association of Residential Letting Agents has revealed that UK landlords believe the market will not be affected by the EU referendum result.
The investigation suggests that whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s vote, UK buy-to-let investors feel that supply, demand and rental fees will not be substantially affected.
Referendum realisation
65% of ARLA agents think that supply will stay the same, should Britain vote to leave the EU. This is in comparison to just 22% who believe that it will fall, with international landlords removing themselves from the market.
31% believe that demand will decrease, with relocating to Britain becoming a less attractive proposition. Over 55% feel that demand will be unchanged.
In London, 43% of agents feel that number of potential tenants per property will fall should Britain choose to leave. Only 19% said a Brexit will cause rents to rise even further.
UK landlords not concerned about Brexit
Impact
David Cox, managing director of ARLA, noted that, ‘there is no avoiding the EU Referendum at the moment; and whatever the outcome, we are likely to feel the impact of the fallout of this debate in different ways. However, it’s important to put this into perspective and not get carried away in a zeitgeist.’
‘As outlined in our recent Brexit Report, the lettings market hosts a large number of non-UK born citizens and any change in migration policy is likely to have an impact down the line, especially in London. However, our monthly report clearly shows the sentiment amongst members is that the immediacy of this effect is likely to be minimal.’[1]
Concluding, Mr Cox said, ‘the EU Referendum debate in many ways has stalled policy making and following the vote we need to move from political debate to action. We need supply to increase dramatically and quickly to really deal with the housing crisis as this is one of the most pressing problems facing UK society today.’[1]
[1] http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/landlords-unphased-by-possible-brexit.html