Renting on the rise and on the move..

There are an estimated 2.7 million letting landlords in the private rented sector (PRS) providing rental accommodation to multiple generations of tenant, a highly vital role in the property market.

However, recent years have arguably not been too kind on landlords, with landlord confidence hitting record lows under the barrage of regulatory and tax adjustments, as well as the common sentiment that the government simply does not hold their interests at value compared to tenants.

But could this be changing? Recent reports suggest that landlord confidence is on the rise, and it may be that the recent consumer-driven shifts to the property market are reasons to be optimistic for the Buy-to-Let (BTL) market

Looking into the reasons why the outlook for landlords is improving, aside from the most obvious answers found in an opening and resurgent economy with a wind-down of restrictions, there is also the demand factor – this is to say that there are more people choosing to rent than ever before.

Some of this is down to affordability (or unaffordability) of the buy market, but many renters are simply starting to favour the flexibility of renting as a long-term lifestyle choice, which will boost demand for landlords for the foreseeable future.

One area that this is most keenly being felt in is the pandemic-influenced interest in properties outside of cities and in towns and rural locales that are a lot more attractive (and in many cases more affordable) for the work-from-home crowd that no longer need to make a regular commute into the office. Landlords may choose to rebalance their portfolios to reflect these potentially long-term changes to consumer behaviour.

There definitely seems to be an emerging trend of landlords spreading their interests outside of London and other major cities to regions beyond, and whilst there are still challenges on the horizon for landlords, there are also opportunities, which perhaps reflects the rise in confidence noted in recent months.

As Churchill once said: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”