Tenant Influx Hits Record Numbers
By: Madalena Penny
61,000 new tenants is no coincidence. According to Countrywide, this is the number of applicants that registered for residential rental property in Q3 this year.
Compared with the previous quarter, the research reveals a 19% increase and a 44% leap since January 2010, creating a tenant-trend and mass flight to the private rented sector that is gaining momentum with each passing month.
Tenants are now outstripping rental supply on an average of 5.8 for each available property, up 3 points from the second quarter of this year. Surface analysis of the PRS points to a once secondary choice of rental tenure and seen as the poor relative of the housing sector, as now the pre-dominate option.
This unexpected shift in tenure trends is of one created by accident rather than design, resulting from economic instability, government cuts and severe lack of available housing stock.
Co-managing director of Countrywide, John Hards said:
”Record levels of demand are seeing the number of available properties reaching critical levels with many properties having lets agreed before the previous tenant’s contract has ended.
‘With demand at an all time high, now is exactly the right time for private home-owners to consider renting their property if they are unable to sell but still want to move.”
In response to the poor performance of the property market, we again see the return of the accidental and reluctant landlords. Data captured from ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) have experienced an increase in home-owners registering properties for temporary lets, in a bid that eventually house prices will increase and allow them to sell at a reasonable price.
Homeowners tempted by the buoyancy of the private rented sector can easily fall victim to the sectors vulnerabilities. Even seasoned landlords fall foul to defaulting tenants, property damage, fraud and criminal activity.
Stephen Moss, senior partner for legal services ‘Legal 4 Landlords’ added:
“We would always suggest to landlords that are new to the industry the importance of thorough tenant referencing credit checks and guarantors. Prevention is much less costlier and stressful than the cure.”
