Landlords are selling or making home improvement to their existing properties to increase their rental potential, but fewer are building up their portfolios.
Recent surveys suggest that over 50% of landlords are selling at least some if not all of their properties. There is also a high portion of landlords re-mortgaging in favor of releasing money to do up their existing properties rather than buying more properties to expand their portfolios.
One of the key reasons is the phased reduction of mortgage interest tax relief introduced last April: 64 per cent of BTL investors have had their finances negatively impacted by the mortgage interest relief changes.
Some 59 per cent say they have been hit by increased stamp duty on second homes while 44 per cent have had their finances negatively impacted by harsher mortgage affordability checks.
A number of people in the UK choose to rent and enjoy the flexibility renting provides. Professionalised landlords are central to supporting this group in the UK. The UK housing market remains vastly undersupplied and landlords are being forced to considering increasing their rents to offset their losses.