Almost half of the UK’s key towns and cities have experienced a drop in new rental property listings in September compared to the month before, research recorded.
Data suggests that this is due landlords being affected by changes in the buy-to-let sector as 80% of locations had already seen a decline in August.
Property Partner’s study analysed data from 89 towns and cities in September and compared them to results from August.
Grimsby, which seemed to be doing alright in August with a drop of only 5.15% in new rental listings, experienced the biggest decrease last month with 26%.
Not a single area in the UK remained unaffected by this trend.
In Oxford rental listings dropped by 23.9%, Canterbury by 23.9% and Brighton by 18.7% whilst Manchester and Birmingham saw a fall of 13.04% and 13.69% respectively.
Property Partner’s Dan Gandesha explained that, whilst a seasonal drop is to be expected, the number of buy-to-let properties coming to the market is actually worryingly low.
The new stamp duty hike in April for buy to let and second homes saw a rush by landlords to beat the deadline with a subsequent rise in stock levels. But now that the dust has settled, we’re seeing some significant declines in new listings, particularly surprising after the summer.”
With the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) already warning of a critical shortage, the sector is now additionally affected by tax changes which are making traditional landlords think twice about investing more.
“Alongside tougher lending criteria and cuts to mortgage interest tax relief starting next year, many landlords will be now doubting if it’s worth the hassle, particularly in the South East. Profits have been hit hard and those landlords that decide to stick with it, may just be forced to push up rents – not a promising prospect for tenants,” he explained.
“Like RICs, we believe Britain should be building more homes across all tenure types. Over the past decade, more and more people have moved away from home ownership and become long term renters. It’s time for the new government to make build to rent a key priority, encouraging the private sector to build properties for residential letting with incentives for institutional and professional landlords,” he added.
