The UK may need an extra 1.1 Million private sector rental properties within the next 4 Years as 1 in 5 Households could be in PRS properties.
The number of people renting homes in the UK Private Rented Sector (PRS) has almost doubled over the last ten years, increasing from 2.5 Million tenants in PRS properties in 2002 to 4.8 million tenants today.
‘Rental Britain’ – A new report from Savills estate agency and the property portal Rightmove, predicts that one in five households could be in Private Rented Sector (PRS) property by the year 2016.
That would require an additional 1.1 Million rental properties to be made available for rent to new tenants.
The report may be gloomy reading for the UK Government but it is great news for thousands UK landlords who have already secured their rental incomes using specialist products and services for landlords, such as, Rent Guarantee insurance.
The ‘Rental Britain’ report forecasts that £200 Billion (GBP) investment in property will be needed, but says that only £50 Billion (GBP) of this is expected to come from buy-to let-funding, with the gap filled by institutional investment in new purpose built rental accommodation, but the report says that this needs to be recognised by the planning system.
The report also states that a shortage in supply is making some regions of the UK unaffordable, with PRS rent rises averaging 5.2% across the UK during 2011.
The report estimates that during 2011, working tenants paid around £48 Billion (GBP) in rent to private landlords, and this is expected to rise to around £70 Billion within the next five years.
Lucian Cook, director of Savills residential research, said: “Meeting the growing demand for private renting and the changing profile of tenant demand are perhaps the greatest challenges facing both the housing industry and policy makers. The dynamics of supply and demand make a great case for investment in this sector, and rising rents and lower capital values have begun to attract private investors back into the market. Investment returns relative to other asset classes will dictate the pace of investor entry to this sector.”
