Britain is fighting a shortfall in rental properties of 1.8m due to tax changes to buy-to-let investors, chartered surveyors have revealed.
Following a statement by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), 1.8m more households will want to rent by 2025.
At the same time, however, 86% of landlords do not plan to invest in more rental properties this year, the RICS said. This lowered interest stems mainly from the additional stamp duty introduced by George Osborne earlier this year.
RICS report suggests post-Brexit fears may have been overestimated
Buy-to-let investment experienced a giant uptake just before the new tax regulations came into play at the beginning of April.
Jeremy Blackburn, RICS Head of Policy said:
It’s time for Theresa May to get out her hard hat. We are facing a critical rental shortage and need to get Britain building in a way that benefits a cross section of society, not just the fortunate few.
“The Private Rented Sector became a scape goat under the previous Prime Minister, and because of that it suffered. Yet with increasingly unaffordable house prices, the majority of British households will be relying on the rental sector in the future.
“We must ensure that it is fit for purpose, and the Government must put in place the measures that will allow the rental sector to thrive.”
Between 2001 and 2014 the number of UK households renting property doubled from 2.3m to 5.4m, but, RICS said, the government has been taking measures to cool demand for buy to let investment, “arguably making a 2025 rental supply crisis more likely”.
