A boom for first-time buyers as almost 400,000 landlords plan to offload property?

The market may be set to be flooded with a swathe of former buy-to-lets, the National Landlords Association claims.

The trade body’s latest quarterly landlord panel of 1,043 members, found 19% intend to sell some of their property.

The NLA said this equates to up to 380,000 landlords looking to offload property.

Almost half, 45%, of those intending to sell said they would get rid of individual flats and apartments, with a third looking to sell terrace homes.

Richard Lambert, chief executive of the NLA, said: “These findings sound like positive news for potential new home owners, but the reality is not everyone wants, or is in a position financially, to buy.

“In fact, if all these homes are sold as planned then it will lead to a significant fall in the supply of property available to those who choose to rent, or have no other option but to rent.

“Everyone seems to have a gut instinct about the extent to which they feel landlords and first-time buyers compete for homes in the UK, but home-ownership is a highly emotive issue so the facts are often overlooked.

“There’s certainly no denying that competition exists, but the significant barriers to home ownership are more likely to be the high cost of a deposit or ability to access mortgage finance.”

The NLA has also released a report and video calling on the Government to encourage more flexible tenancies and to stop taxing landlords so harshly, so that a choice of different housing tenures remains.

 

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7 Comments

  1. RosBeck73

    Brief editorial note: title should read ‘boon’ not ‘boom.’  You may like to change it and delete my comment.

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  2. Bless You

    Be good to see what figure actually sold in 1 year time to see if these constant stats stack up.

    I’ve just worked out I’ve done a £2 million deal.

    N.b. deal is over 10 years and is all my sales stacked up into 1 nice big figure to look good.

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  3. TOZ4

    Wait until prices come off and yeilds fall. There be an awful lot more than 400,000 landlords.

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  4. CountryLass

    It’s a double edged sword. The properties will flood onto the sales market, hiking the supply of that type of property and meaning that its a buyers market so prices will drop. Meanwhile there will be increased demand for rental properties, so rents will increase, meaning some tenants will have to leave as they can’t afford any rent increases. Housing associations and social housing can’t cope with the demand for property now, so when there are 400,000 new ‘homeless’ they will be shafted.

     

    And as mortgage lenders don’t seem to take paying rent as proof that Tenants can pay a mortgage, mortgage lending is unlikely to increase.

     

    I can follow the obvious (to me) doomsday path this could take, but I think I would end up crying in a corner….

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    1. TOZ4

      Landlords will typically keep tenants in occupation untill they exchange rather then lose out on rent.

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  5. mattfaizey

    Given yesterday’s story regarding AirBnB reporting income direct to tax authorities in Denmark, there’ll be even more looking to get out.

    I seem to receive Rightmove alerts on ever more blocks of properties each day. Only 3 or 4 months ago I hardly got any.

    With the tax changes, and the possibility of direct income reporting to HMRC we could be about to find out just how big the black economy in rent income really is!

    Has to be good news in terms of a readjustment of property prices.

     

    ETA with real net returns of less than 3% at current pricing levels for much of the country, prospective new Landlords (like me watching the market) are looking and considering that there needs to be a readjustment in values. The returns just ain’t good enough if you enter now

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  6. RosBeck73

    I wouldn’t keep tenants in situ if I was selling. You can’t prepare a house to get the best price with tenants in it. Also you would be restricting your potential market. Government policy is therefore leading inevitably to a huge number of notices being served on tenants. And charities like Shelter who rail about so-called no fault evictions (a meaningless and inaccurate term) support the policies which directly lead to this.

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