Rightmove has recently completed a survey of over 1,200 landlords throughout the UK and discovered some interesting trends in the experience of the landlords and their future plans.

 

Most respondents are portfolio landlords

The first thing to note about the respondents to the survey is that over 70% of the landlords who responded own more than one rental property. This is not consistent with the majority of Umega’s Edinburgh landlords who own only one rental property.

 

Landlord plans for the next 12 months

18% of landlords who have a plan for their rental properties over the next 12 months intend to decrease the number or properties they own or exit the market altogether. This seems like a worrying stat for the private rented sector (PRS) since there is already a sector wide problem with a shortage of available stock, however, 38% of landlords who have made a plan intend to increase the number of properties they own. This feels like a high proportion of landlords on both sides of the divide (although we’ve got nothing to compare it to) and indicates a high level of activity in the PRS over the next 12 months in one form or another.

 

Being a Landlord for the long-term

Of the 38% of landlords who intend to increase the number of rental properties they own over the next 12 months, the top reason for this is that they plan on being a landlord for the long-term. Other top reasons included that property is seen as a safe investment and is a better investment than the alternatives.

 

Clues relating to low available stock levels

Only 5% of the landlords who responded entered the market in the last 12 months. 

92% of landlords said that their average tenancy lasted more than one year with almost two thirds answering that their average tenancy is more than 2 years. Putting these answers together helps us see why the number of available properties on the rental market seem to be dropping faster than the overall size of the private rented sector seems to be shrinking; tenants are renting for a bit longer and there are slightly less new landlords coming to the market.