Large number of landlords seek to buy new properties
According to a recent survey, nearly 20 percent of residential landlords in the United Kingdom are seeking to purchase new properties in the coming months, in order to take advantage of falling housing prices. The vast majority of experts predict that property prices will continue to drop during the first half of 2009, after which point they will probably stabilize. As such, the next several months represent the best opportunity for private residential landlords to expand their portfolios.
The survey was produced by the Money Centre and what it found was that residential landlords throughout much of the UK had a relatively optimistic outlook on the future prospects for their business, despite the fact that the housing sales market was in crisis. Many landlords indicated that their rental yields were actually increasing, as demand among tenants grows.
But the clearest sign that the rental industry remains in good health is that 20 percent of survey respondents noted that they plan to buy new properties within the next three months, in order to take advantage of the lower prices. Lynsey Sweales pointed out that some landlords are also buying new properties at lower prices in order to augment their overall cash flow and balance out any problems that might arise from expensive mortgage payments on less lucrative properties. As part of its survey, the Money Centre also found that the average rent in the UK now stands at £600 per month, while rental yields have increased by around 2.2 percent.