Most Landlords Are Committed To The BTL Sector

The majority of landlords are committed to the country's buy to let sector and want to increase or maintain their number of properties over the next year, a report reveals.

According to The Mortgage Lender, they found that 84% of landlords will remain focused on the BTL sector.

The survey also found that around half of landlords believe that tax changes have reduced private landlord numbers in recent years.

However, just 1% of landlords say that the tax changes have led to an increase in rental property quality.

Landlords say they are looking for specialist tax advice

Also, one in eight landlords says they are looking for specialist tax advice for managing their portfolio and four in 10 landlords are using specialist BTL mortgage brokers when looking to invest.

The deputy chief executive of The Mortgage Lender, Peter Beaumont, said: "Our report shows landlords are sharing their opinions and worries and the most common number of properties is between two and four, with 10% of landlords using a limited company structure for investing.

"And 84% of landlords say they are looking to increase or maintain property numbers over the next year while 16% are looking to reduce the number of properties they have."

He added that the care of a property and its maintenance, as well as tenant behaviour, are the top three worries that keep a landlord awake at night.

Areas where rent affordability is an issue

Meanwhile, another survey has highlighted the areas in the UK where tenants are struggling with rent affordability.

The findings from a lettings platform reveal those areas where rent growth is swallowing up a tenant's income.

The platform says that rents have risen to £8,110 in 2018, up from 2017's £7,871.

Also, with average incomes rising to £27,431, rent accounts for 29% of this amount.

However, for tenants in London, their rent as a proportion of their salary has increased to 48.2% from 35.9% over the space of a year. That's an increase of 12.3%.

A spokesman for the platform said: "The research demonstrates that while there are some areas with strong salary growth and rental affordability has improved, a lot of tenants are worse off than they were a year ago because of stagnant wage growth and increasing rents."

After central London, the next worst area is Richmond followed by Hackney.

Outside of London, rent affordability is an issue for tenants in Rutland and also in Nottingham and Midlothian.