Buyers’ fears likely to fill landlords’ pockets

Posted 2007-12-18

New data by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) revealed today that the dawdling housing market has enhanced the demand for rental homes but reduced the popularity for flats.

A RICS representative commented that deficient incentives for buyer-hopefuls, in conjunction with economic uncertainty, is prompting an increase in tenant lettings, providing increased comfort for landlords. 

RICS also revealed in its quarterly Lettings Survey, that the demand for family housing was currently higher than for flats due to an abundance of the latter in the market. 

Although the latest data showed 25.2% more chartered surveyors reported a rise, as opposed to a fall, in demand for family houses, the survey did caution there would be some variations of uncertainty for landlords. 

Jeremy Leaf, a spokesman for RICS, expressed that the tightening lending criteria and successive interest rate rises had begun to hit the buy-to-let market. 

Supporting his claim, 16.9% reported a rise in demand from flats - down from 36.9% in the last quarter. 

Mr. Leaf added, “With rents still on the increase many would-be-buyers will find accessing the housing market even more difficult as they struggle to raise the capital for that first important purchase. However, many landlords will still take solace from uncertainty in the economy and enjoy the gains from rising rents.”

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