€‹It’s wholly unsurprising that there has been an uptick in interest for new landlords getting into the buy-to-let market in recent months given that this is currently one of the best periods to be investing in property since the late 90’s or early 2000’s.
It’s wholly unsurprising that there has been an uptick in interest for new landlords getting into the buy-to-let market in recent months given that this is currently one of the best periods to be investing in property since the late 90’s or early 2000’s.
Of course, the encouragement from the government has been extremely helpful, with the UK property market being one of the central points in their economic recovery plan following the pandemic, so this interest from first-time landlords is unsurprising.
Regardless of government support, however, property prices and demand have been rising sharply since the end of 2019 and rose as high as 8% in some areas of England throughout 2020, marking one of the best performances for decades.
The pandemic has also changed the way people think about their living situations and has driven a huge increase in demand for Private Rented Sector properties and, as such, has seen more landlords and investors coming into the market.
This has, consequently, meant that the demand for properties has gone even higher with no realistic increase in supply, which seems to be driving prices further and some are predicting up to 25% increases in certain areas of England over the next 5 years.
Increase in investors
According to Property Wire, there has been a marked increase in interest across the mortgage and lending market for Buy-To-Let mortgages and lending.
The article quoted Matthew Corker, at Knowledge Bank, saying: ‘The rental market in the UK is receiving a lot of interest at the moment. Perhaps as a result of the volatility in the stock market due to the pandemic, investors are turning to what they see as a safe investment.
‘With house prices increasing in the past year and interest in rental properties also on the increase, this trend could be set to continue.’
It certainly seems as though this is the best time to invest in UK property in recent years, or even decades.
With some dubbing it the ‘race for space’, the changing attitudes following the pandemic has seen a lot of people moving out of cities and into the suburbs in order to find more space as they start the transition to working from home long-term.
This, in turn, appears to have driven a demand for more housing in cities from younger renters who perhaps hadn’t intended to move quite so early but, through the pandemic, have been forced to spend much more time at home with parents.
Overall, the picture seems to be fairly uniform across the UK that the supply of rental houses is dwindling and noticeably strained in most areas with very few rental properties staying on the property platforms for longer than a few days at a time.
For investors, this means that 2021 is likely to be a very good year to get into or expand into the market for UK property as this demand looks set to drive rents higher and will, in turn, drive yields too.
