9
Sep
Buy-to-let 'sees 20% growth'
The number of people renting a home in the UK has risen by 20 per
cent in the past three months, a survey has found.
A study by the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (Arla)
found that the rise in the number of renters has partly been
fuelled by some homes being put up for rent rather than getting
sold.
Despite this, it found that 64 per cent of agents were finding they
had a shortfall of demand, a figure that dropped to 41 per cent in
London.
Rents were also up during August, with the average monthly rent per
house rising by three per cent to £387 and the average monthly
rent for a flat by seven per cent to £253.
Arla's head of operations Ian Potter commented that these
increases, put together with the absence of unusual selling
patterns, "proves once again that the credit crunch effect on the
private rented sector exists only in the imagination".
Earlier today Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors spokesman
Jeremy Leaf said buy-to-let investors will do well out of the new
stamp duty holiday on properties sold for under £175,000 as
they tend to have good access to finance for purchases.
