Tenants flock to register

In what can only be good news for Landlords, a leading letting agency has seen a 16% rise in tenants registering for rental accommodation in the second quarter of the year.

Countrywide, the UK’s largest letting and property service business say they now have over 50,000 potential home seekers on their books, 18,000 of these registering in June alone. In the same quarter, new properties coming on to the market actually fell by 6%.

The survey, which took in data collected from over 200 branches nationwide, revealed that two bedroom properties in the South West were most in demand with almost 9 potential tenants for each property on the market, a much higher figure than the national average of 5.5. The surge in demand has also seen the time each property spends on the market drop to just 14 days, over 40% shorter than the last quarter of 2009.

Further good news for Landlords is that the increase in demand has generated a small rise in rental income with four bed roomed houses now bringing in an average rent of nearly £1100 per month. The buoyant market has also attracted new landlords into the sector; the survey recognised a growth of 6% in first time landlords.

Although the good news is tempered by the gloomy outlook in property values forecast by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, they predict property prices falling in the second half on the year, it appears that residential landlords can purchase their landlord insurance confident that their properties will be facing less void periods than usual in the coming months.

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