editor posted on October 14, 2011 02:49
Research from buy-to-let mortgage specialist Paragon has revealed a surge in the proportion of landlords planning to purchase family-focused housing.
Paragon’s Trends research shows that the types of property landlords are looking to invest in during the third quarter of the year are more suited to meet the needs of families moving into the private rented sector.
Of those landlords planning to purchase during the quarter, 41% (up from 28% in Q2) are looking to invest in semi-detached houses and 22% (up from 9% in Q2) are looking to buy a detached property.
Paragon’s research shows that nearly half (45%) of landlords have families as tenants, making them the fourth largest tenant type. Over half of landlords let to young couples (55%), with 52% letting to professionals and 50% to young singles.
Nigel Terrington, Paragon Group chief executive, said: “It is interesting to see more families relying on the PRS, and this is certainly a trend which I expect to stay.
“Young couples and single person households will continue to account for a large proportion of the PRS, but I think over the next few years we will see more families making use of the flexibility and affordable accommodation that the PRS provides.
“With a rising UK population, which is set to grow from 62.3 million today to 65 million in 2016, landlords need to react quickly to a changing tenant demographic as otherwise demand will most certainly exceed supply quite considerably.”
Rob Wellstead, Managing Director at multi award winning Lenwell said: “With the home buying property market still difficult for many, we have seen an increase in the number of families looking to rent with many making a lifestyle choice to do so.
It therefore makes sense for landlords to look at meeting this demand by providing family accommodation in their portfolios.”