Three model houses with signs on which say: 'Buy me', 'For sale', 'Best deal'

Category: prs

Analysis into the UK buy to let mortgage market has revealed potential investment opportunities for landlords.

The research conducted by Sequre Property Investment has highlighted areas throughout the UK that currently have a low number of available rental properties.

A low level of availability potentially indicates that these areas have a higher demand for rental properties and therefore, may be good locations for landlords to invest in.

Regional availability

Out of the 4.7m rental properties in England, only 168,634 are currently available. When the numbers are broken down on a regional basis, it is evident that certain areas have a much lower level of availability compared to others.

Currently, the South West has 7,802 rental properties available out of approximately 520,000. This works out at just 1.5 percent of the whole market and is the area with the lowest level of availability.

Within Northern regions, demand for rental properties also appears relatively high, as they have the next three lowest levels of availability.

The North West has just 2.2 percent of their rental properties available and the North East has only 2.4 percent.

Yorkshire and the Humber are currently sat with 2.5 percent of properties available, and is therefore slightly above the other northern regions.

In the West Midlands, the percentage of available properties is 3.1, a slightly larger jump from Yorkshire and the Humber.

Within regions in the East the numbers are lingering around the 3 percent mark, with the East at 3.3 percent and East Midlands at 3.2 percent.

Coming in at 1.2 percent higher than Yorkshire and the Humber is the South East at 3.7 percent.

Currently, the area with the highest number of available rental properties is London, which is at 7.2 percent. An unsurprising finding, given the fact that over the pandemic, many individuals were keen to move away from larger cities.

Opportunity for landlord investors?

Daniel Jackson, sales director at Sequre Property comments on the topic:

“So much attention is given to the sales market, not least in the wake of Covid-19, but the rental market remains far more relevant for many millions of people in this country.

“These people need homes - good quality, secure homes - and yet the buy-to-let industry has come under attack from a government that has a vision of England where everybody owns and nobody rents.

“But this isn’t a vision that most people share and so, despite the government’s best efforts, choosing to invest in a region with a lack of available rental properties on the market means you have a great chance of securing reliable, long-term tenancies in high-demand markets.”

Overall, this analysis gives UK landlords and other investors an insight into areas that may end up being a lucrative investment opportunity.