According to The Paragon Group’s latest survey, over half of landlords (54%) said they were optimistic about tenant demand this year, with 48% stating that stable interest rates will be a key positive in 2011.
Meanwhile, the ability to increase rents was cited as another reason to be confident by 30% of landlords, whilst 29% were also pleased with the wider availability of buy-to-let mortgage finance and the easing of mortgage lenders’ criteria.
Nigel Terrington, chief executive of The Paragon Group, said: “Landlords are benefitting from excellent levels of demand, low finance costs and a strong pricing position. The availability of buy-to-let mortgage finance is also easing, and we should expect to see landlord transaction levels increase on 2010 levels across the market.”
Meanwhile, regulation topped private sector landlords’ list of concerns for the second consecutive year. Nearly half of landlords (46%) said they were worried about complying with the level of regulation required to the running of their property business during the year.
Other concerns included tenant unemployment (42%), falling tenant demand (14.3%) and the introduction of new Housing Benefit caps (15%).
