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Demand continues to soar for rental market
A high level of demand for rental accommodation has led to tenants snapping up properties within an average of 13 days in Q3 of 2011.
This compares to 17 days in quarter one last year, reported Countrywide.
The group’s 1,300 estate and lettings agency offices saw a 51% uplift in demand from tenants in the new year, compared to 46% from Q4 in 2009.
The research also showed a significant rise in the proportion of small scale buy-to-let landlords coming back into the market.
Buy-to-let investors with a portfolio of 1 to 3 properties accounted for 40% of all landlords, up from 35% at the end of 2010.
The group said that supply remains stable but low with a shortfall of supply across all property categories, from studio flats to five bedroom houses, with an average of five tenants vying for each available UK rental property.
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John Hards, co-managing director of Countrywide Residential Lettings, said: “The number of rental properties becoming available is still extremely low, in comparison to high levels of tenant demand. There has been an increase in the availability of buy-to-let lending and there are indications that small investor landlords are coming back into the market.
“This uplift in activity in the buy-to-let market is welcomed and we hope that the Government will do more to correct the widening gap between supply and demand in the private rental sector.”