New figures from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, published earlier this week, show a sharp drop in the supply of rental homes. The latest RICS Residential Market Survey for November shows surveyors reporting a fall in landlord instructions that is twice as low as that reported in November 2018.
With tenant demand on an upward trend, the RICS predicts that this will lead to rent increases of around 2% in the next 12 months and around 3% each year for the next five years.
Industry commentators see this as a direct result of a range of tax and other policies that have continued to hammer private landlords, forcing many BTL owners out of the market. This is leading to a severe lack of homes in some parts of the country and – if the RICS figures are to be believed – renters are now facing a double whammy, with poor supply pushing rents up even higher.
With the uncertainty surrounding Brexit now likely to be resolved by the end of January, the new Government needs to turn its attention to domestic issues. Setting out changes to improve the climate for landlords and encourage new investment in the PRS would be a good place to start.
We know the city has been holding back on numerous loan approvals for our build to rent clients awaiting Brexit certainty, so we are pleased to note the pound bouncing back to give the investment community the assurance they need.
The progressive taxes that have been levied on landlords aimed to ensure that when competing to buy a property they were not favoured over other purchasers. This was ill thought out.
Buy-to-let landlords are housing providers themselves and have been the backbone of the rental market since the institutions left decades ago due to rent control and the government stopped building. With so many Housing Associations reporting that they have become developers not rent providers, the UK needs private landlords – who, by and large do a good job. Fingers crossed for the forthcoming 2020 budget.