Research by Paragon revealed that, of those landlords planning to buy property during the third quarter of the year, 41% intend to purchase semi-detached houses and 22% detached, up from 28% and 9% respectively in the second quarter of the year.
In the past, the assumption has been that most renters are younger singles and couples, hence the lion’s share of buy-to-let properties have been one- and two-bed flats and terraces.
However, Paragon’s research showed that a significant proportion of landlords are now letting to families and this looks set to increase in the coming months.
It seems that difficulty in accessing mortgage finance, a strained social housing sector and general economic pressure are forcing more and more families to turn to privately rented accommodation.
Paragon’s reseach showed that nearly half (45%) of landlords have families as tenants, making them the fourth largest tenant type.
More than 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 62.3m today to 65m in 2016, landlords need to react quickly to a changing tenant demographic as otherwise demand will most certainly exceed supply quite considerably.”
