Buy-to-Let – the outlook’s fine

Who is buying buy- to-let property?  Apparently many of the purchases come from small investors, with 45% of landlords owning just one property. 75% of landlords own four or less properties

When it comes to who rents these properties, it seems that most tenants are young, fully employed and highly mobile, ready to climb the career ladder and move areas should the need arise. Compare this with twenty years ago, when 40% of twenty to twenty four year olds were purchasing property, a figure that has now halved to 20%. In the next age-group, up to 30 year olds, the figure has dropped for 66% down to 50%. It’s a changing, more flexible world.

According to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) 40% of the private rental sector is made up of flats and more than half of rented property is situated in rural or suburban areas. The age of properties varies, with around half being built prior to 1919.

The market in buy-to-let is still growing, for several reasons, not least being the fact that the general housing market has shown an amazing resilience, despite the presence of increasing interest rates and utility bills and house prices have continued their upward spiral. Another major factor is that first time buyers are increasingly struggling to get onto the property owning ladder; with many not ready to undertake their buying until they reach their mid 30’s. Even then, many households are simply unable to make that big jump into their own home, due to other commitments, with the result that they are forced to look at rented properties.

Student accommodation remains in huge demand and a large (and growing) influx of immigrants have fuelled the requirement for rental properties. Income from property letting maintains its buoyancy as the lack of affordable housing continues, this in turn pushes up property prices and the result is even more first time buyers unable to find a home they can afford. Buy-to-let mortgages are varied and plentiful and by contacting an on-line broker you can find the most up-to-date ones and the very best deals

Whilst house prices have retained their healthy growth, income from rentals has remained more constant in some areas. However, given the extremely satisfying increases in the value of the property, many landlords are not too bothered about the possibility of small shortfalls in income from time to time. It does need to be stressed that any interest rate rises would affect the balance, as would any periods when the property is between lets or undergoing maintenance. Anyone thinking of entering this market should be advised to take this into account when balancing the rental income with the mortgage outgoing.

One possible worry about the buy-to-let boom could come via the Government. The issue of the first time buyer and lack of affordable housing is a thorn in the Government’s side which won’t go away. Despite the fact that around 170,000 new homes are being built annually, the target is 200,000 and no real inroads are being made to alter the situation. First time buyers can’t afford homes which are being snapped up by buy-to-let investors, which makes the situation even worse. Hopefully the Government will focus its attention on solving these problems and not seek to impose a tax on rental income or capital gains adjustment on rental properties.

As a medium to long term investment, buy-to-let continues to attract its devotees and the general opinion of the experts is that it will continue to grow, even if there is hiccup caused by variations in interest rates. The long-term outlook is thought to be excellent.