A report released recently appears to show that residential landlords are optimistic about what the future holds for the private rental market.
A report released by the National Landlords Association (NLA) indicates that the majority of landlords are very positive about the short term future at least; with nearly 6 in 10 saying the immediate prospects for their business was good or very good, so much so that many were considering adding other properties to their portfolio. On a specific confidence indicator used by the NLA the index reached 51 in the first quarter of this year, the first time it has reached this since the final three months of 2007.
Slight rises in property prices, which boost the prospective capital returns for business, and an increasing stream of tenants searching for homes, is seeing less periods of vacant tenancies and more profits for the average landlord although the NLA have warned about a dark cloud on the horizon. They foresee the new Governments pledge to alter the rate of capital gains tax as a factor that could change dramatically the confidence index factor for the next quarter of 2010. If the current rate of 18% is changed to anything akin to the 40 or 50% some pundits are predicting then landlords will be looking for more than cheap landlord insurance to keep their businesses intact.
Chris Norris the NLA’s policy manager observed “Landlords have faced considerable challenges recently.
“Everything from longer void periods to an increase in rental arrears has taken its toll on landlords’ optimism. However, it is good to see we may well have turned a corner.”