Insurance News Archive

Buy to let insurance customers 'to see rental shortage continue'

Posted by Michael Brown

Landlords and buy to let property insurance policyholders have been told that the current shortage of rental property could continue for the next four to five years.

According to LettingZone, the imbalance between increasing tenant demand and the limited number of available properties for rent is set to remain until at least 2014.

The supply of rental housing has now sunk to an all-time low, with 70 per cent of lettings firms reporting more tenants than available properties in the third quarter of 2010, according to the Association of Residential Letting Agents.

Mark Garner, managing director at LettingZone, said: "There is not much more stock coming on to the market and there are certainly more tenants coming on to the market and this will continue for probably the next four or five years."

He added that the dearth of stock is primarily down to strict lending criteria preventing landlords from increasing their portfolios.

19 Jul 2010