Landlord.co.uk heralds a boom in the property rental market

In the face of troubled UK property market conditions, the team at specialist property portal, Landlord.co.uk believes a boom in the rental sector has begun, caused by buyers losing confidence in house purchases and rushing to lease dwellings.

Tim Warrington of Landlord.co.uk says: “As consumers widely lose confidence in the housing market – a situation not helped by the recent crisis at Northern Rock - the rental boom that is giving landlords a boost has begun. Rents are rising at their fastest level since 2000, with some landlords registered with our site recently reporting increases of up to 20% in rental incomes.

“Landlords have taken a bit of a bashing lately but the good news for the industry is that rising rents will result in more cash flow. In turn, this will provide valued funds. Meanwhile, it seems that there’s no way to hold back the UK buy to let investor.”

He adds: “We believe it was inevitable that rents would rise because they haven’t kept up with house price inflation, thereby pushing yields to an all time low. However, this will soon change. As potential buyers are feeling nervous about the housing market, more will rent properties and wait to see what happens next year, causing a virtuous cycle of increased demand and higher financial return for landlords.”

Mr Warrington, who was quoted last week saying many landlords are selling their properties, concludes: “It is still the case that nervous landlords are selling properties. However, these landlords are the inexperienced ones or the retiring ones while the professionals tend to take a longer term view. They realise that a professional landlord should win whether the market is up or down - if they manage their property portfolios properly.”