Landlord report - ONS
This morning the ONS published a fairly interesting report on private landlords in England. If you want to scan and draft a few lines, have at it. The report is >> here <.
4 responses from the Newspage community
This data shows us that all the government intervention such as removing mortgage interest relief and increasing stamp duty for additional properties to deter landlords has failed as landlords now own a bigger proportion of housing than they did in 08-09. Perhaps it’s now time to properly regulate the private rented sector in a bid to force out the rouge players and leave the good ones to pick up the slack.
We can see from the report that prodiomionently landlords identify as white males and are aged between 55 to 74, so an aging demographic. We can also see that only 11% of landlords plan to increase their portfolio, with 22% planning to decrease or sell their portfolio. This could point to an upcoming reduction of private landlords almost certainly linked to past and upcoming Government intervention. There are certainly some challenges ahead for landlords both with the upcoming EPC rules as well as the 'landlord tax' initiative, and many older landlords may prefer to sell.
One interesting snippet from the ONS report was the fact that twice as many landlords (22%) plan to either decrease or sell off their portfolio as those Landlords who plan to increase it (11%).
One possible reason is rental arrears may be on the rise. And perhaps they can see the writing on the wall for property prices as btl mortgage rates increase and the cost of living crisis tips the UK into recession.
It's no surprise to me that the private rental sector has grown from 14% to 19% of all households, in the last 12 years. Property investment has become extremely popular over the last decade and is still the dream for millions. The report highlights that 82% of landlords owned four or less buy to lets, showing that small investors are driving the market. However, further rate rises could lower yields and therefore dampen demand from investors or dare I say it house prices falling as well!