Although there was no rise in the number of landlords feeling more confident about the buy to let sector this month the outlook generally is still upbeat.
Upad.co.uk’s latest Rental Confidence Index survey found that 61 percent of those surveyed said they felt more confident this month, which was exactly the same percentage in March.
Survey respondents who left comments reflected a generally positive outlook, but stressed continuing problems with legislative changes and issues around benefit payments. Comments from those who said they felt more confident than last month included:
- Rents are starting to rise. The new supply of rental properties will stay low until lenders start lending again.
- I had a tenant for my rental property after just one week of advertising. Interest was keen with renters prepared to pay more than the advertised rent to secure the property.
Comments from the 39 percent saying they felt less confident in the market included:
- Landlords have no rights. Changes to housing benefit payments have meant tenants not forwarding the payments to the landlord.
- I neither like the proposed legislation, nor the old legislation on securities.
Upad's founder and CEO James Davis said: “For the fifth consecutive month since we launched the Landlord Confidence Index, landlords have expressed their renewed confidence in the rental market.
“We had expected a shaky month, due to the implementation of regulatory changes, the Budget and uncertainties over the General Election, but these results show that for landlords who are prepared to treat buy to let professionally as a business, the market remains buoyant.”
• Despite low interest rates and signs of stability in the housing market the remainder of 2010 will continue to pose some challenges for private buy to let landlords, tenant eviction and rent recovery firm Landlord Assist.
It has been suggested that life for landlords is finally getting easier with rental figures marginally increasing over the last few months as more and more people have turned to rented accommodation during the financial crisis.
But Landlord Assist says that whilst there are signs of optimism in the market, private landlords still face growing rent arrears caused by continued unemployment rates and the ongoing failure of the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) system.
Graham Kinnear, MD of Landlord Assist, also stressed that in addition to facing rent arrears, landlords continue to operate against a raft of administration and legislation in order to keep their properties let and the rents coming in.
He said: “Whilst the future looks much brighter for landlords in terms of demand for rented accommodation and marginal increases in rent, landlords continue to battle against rent arrears and increasing red tape.
“As a result, the following few months will remain tricky for landlords even though there finally appears to be grounds for optimism.
“Landlords are unable to sustain non paying tenants and must take precautionary measures at the start the of tenancy agreement, such as reference checks, to minimise the risk of being exposed to rent arrears.”
Further struggles facing landlords include the difficulty with which they are able to secure funding for additional purchases and remortgages of existing stock as well as funds for renovation, repair and refurbishment work. All of these factors are impacting the quantity of private rented accommodation available.
