According to a leading landlord organisation, investors in the residential letting sector can look forward to another good two years.
As gazumping moves from the homebuyers market into the rental sector, The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) is forecasting that the remainder of 2011 and all of 2012 will prove to be bumper years for landlords. They believe the lack of properties in the private sector due to harsh lending requirements will remain the same over the next 20 months.
That fact, combined with the seemingly never ending growth of tenants on the lookout for decent accommodation, will mean landlords with the wherewithal to finance new additions to their portfolio, can buy with confidence knowing the chances of experiencing long void periods are going to be rare. Of course, ARLA advise all landlords to ensure they have good landlord insurance to cover unforeseen emergencies, but by and large expect landlords to benefit over the next few years.
Ian Potter, an operations director at ARLA said “The Leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, recently flagged research that shows 41% young low-to-middle earners live in privately rented accommodation compared with 14% in 1988. This trend looks set to continue while mortgages are so hard to come by and the capital barriers to home ownership appear so entrenched.”
ARLA have based their predictions on evidence gleaned from their members throughout the UK, a great majority of whom believe that demand will outstrip supply for the foreseeable future. They could well be right. Letting agents FindAProperty report that 1 in 8 tenants are complaining of being gazumped at the last minute by other would be tenants while 1 in 4 say they would be willing or indeed have gazumped themselves to procure a good property.