Private rental sector – Fallen to a seven-year low
Tax and legislation
The number of landlords in the private rental sector has fallen to a seven-year low. The recent tax and legislative changes have caused a significant reduction in the amount of privately rented homes on the market. For example, since 2017, privately rented homes have fallen by 156,410 and the number of landlords has fallen by 222,570 in 2019 compared to in 2017 – 8% fewer than the 2017 peak. There were 2.58 million landlords in Great Britain in 2017 meaning landlords in the private rental sector has fallen to the lowest in seven years.
Despite this drop, the average landlord does now own more properties for example in 2005 – 14% of landlords had multiple properties and in 2019 – 30% of landlords had multiple properties.
Some Landlords left the private rental sector – 2017 onwards, due to tax and regulatory changes and those landlords who have stayed have tended to have a bigger portfolio. Because of this the private rental sector does seems to be professionalising – meaning perhaps less ‘accidental landlords’ that have chosen to rent there home out as a second option due to not being able to make a sale and more ‘actual landlords’ that have the funds in place to maintain there property and to make being a ‘landlord’ a professional business.
Rent increase
Also, rental income has increased throughout Great Britain, the number of new homes purchased by landlords remains at a low and this is now another contributing factor that has led to the decrease in homes available to rent.
For example, In January 2020, across Great Britain, the average rent for a new let increased to £998 per calendar month, that’s an increase of 3.6% compared to January 2019 – In the North that increase was 3.3%. The regions that had minimal rent increase had landlords with greater portfolios/ properties available.
First-hand
Stuarts are lucky enough to have successfully covered the whole of Manchester and Cheadle over many years, but we have sadly lost landlords due to the tax and legislation implications, noticed the rents per calendar month increasing and so have in fact noticed a fall in our available properties first-hand.