{"id":6032969,"date":"2020-09-16T09:30:57","date_gmt":"2020-09-16T08:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buyassociation.co.uk\/?p=6032969"},"modified":"2023-11-09T17:25:26","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T16:25:26","slug":"will-we-get-the-usual-fourth-quarter-lull-in-buy-to-let","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/news\/will-we-get-the-usual-fourth-quarter-lull-in-buy-to-let\/","title":{"rendered":"Will we get the usual fourth quarter lull in the buy-to-let sector?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK rental market often slows down after a summer rush. However, the curve balls of 2020 could mean high levels of activity right up to Christmas in buy-to-let.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The latest monthly market data from estate and lettings agency Chestertons<\/a> shows a number of key trends in the UK’s rental market. Both tenant demand<\/a> and rental property supply have picked up “dramatically” since April. There’s also indications that the height of activity could still be ahead of us in buy-to-let.<\/p>\n

The report looks at the London market specifically. However, while London<\/a> often moves at a different pace to the rest of country, other regions could see similar trends.<\/p>\n

According to Chestertons, while tenant moves fell drastically in early lockdown, they have since picked up. Between April and June this year, there was a 49% increase in website enquiries from tenants up from the same period last year. There was also a 38% rise on viewings<\/a>, despite the lockdown restrictions.<\/p>\n

How supply and demand balances out<\/h4>\n

However, demand in central London has fallen. There were around 52% less tenants moving in the area between April and June compared to the previous three months. This is likely down to a combination of job uncertainty among tenants, and more people staying with family.<\/p>\n

Other reports show how many people, tenants included, are increasingly looking away from central London. Lockdown has changed people’s priorities as well as their work-life balance<\/a>. For many, home-working is now a way of life. More people are looking for more space or even a whole new location in the north or the Midlands, where they can find better value for money.<\/p>\n

Supply, however, has begun to recover in central London. Chestertons says the number of rental properties<\/a> available at the end of June was almost 70% higher than June 2019. According to Richard Davies, head of lettings at Chestertons, some landlords are reducing rents to attract more tenants.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis is undoubtedly a tough market for landlords and rents are still under a lot of pressure but September has started strongly, with applicant registrations up 50% compared to the same time last year and viewings and move-ins up 39% and 58% respectively.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s the outlook for buy-to-let landlords?<\/h4>\n

What happens to the wider economy<\/a> will certainly impact the short and long-term outlook in buy-to-let. Chestertons believes smaller landlords could be the worst hit, in part due to regulatory burdens that were already in place.<\/p>\n

It adds: “However, with sales prices lower than they have been for some time and borrowing costs remaining low, we may see more professional landlords looking to expand their portfolios<\/a> in 2020. The \u00a315,000 stamp duty saving will be an added incentive to buy.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chestertons also believes that the supply-demand imbalance should even out as the economy recovers. This will bring more tenants back to the market, and decrease void periods for landlords.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, it states that rents in Greater London could call by 8-10% in 2020 and 3-5% in 2021. However, specific locations could see big variations, with some areas seeing bigger surges in demand than others.<\/p>\n

The report concludes: “The market is changing rapidly, however, and as in the wider market, locations which see a quicker return to a balance between supply and demand could even see rents rise again before the end of this year.”<\/p>\n

While Richard Davies acknowledges that the fourth quarter is “traditionally quieter for the lettings market”, the year so far has been turned on its head<\/a>, so there is the potential for even more demand to return to the sector over the months ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK rental market often slows down after a summer rush. However, the curve balls of 2020 could mean high levels of activity right up to Christmas in buy-to-let. The latest monthly market data from estate and lettings agency Chestertons shows a number of key trends in the UK’s rental market. Both tenant demand and… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":5024128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-6032969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buy-to-let-landlords","tag-buy-to-let"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6032969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6098416,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6032969\/revisions\/6098416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5024128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6032969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6032969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.buyassociationgroup.com\/en-gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6032969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}