Clear signs of a recovery in Britain’s buy to let sector was reported last week by Residential Landlords Association (RLA) news

Rents have fallen during the past 12 months. However RLA news reported rents had stabilised in May to an average of £795. The extent of the fall in rents is seen by the fact that average monthly rent last year was £895.

Buy to let landlords are no longer adding to their portfolios due to the problems in securing appropriate mortgage funding. In addition, a number of landlords have reduced their portfolio, adding to the reduction in supply. The rise in rents is therefore due to reduction in rental properties coming onto the market.

All positive news on the buy to let sector is to be welcomed. However, I think it’s inappropriate to talk of recovery based on 1 month’s figures. Rental figures and capital values are likely to be rather erratic over the coming months as the housing market looks for stability.  But the fact that rents may have stopped falling (even if only temporarily) is a good sign amidst all the bad news the sector has had in the past year.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 9:28 am and is filed under general, property market general, rental trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.