Continued demand for family homes

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by Gill Montia

In its latest Lettings Survey, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) blames oversupply of rental properties for a reduction in growth in tenant demand.

In the three months to October of this year, 20% more Rics members reported a rise than a fall in tenant lettings; the figure compares with 28.5% in the previous three months.

Family homes continued to be in greater demand than apartments; 25.2% more chartered surveyors reported a rise than a fall in demand for houses compared with 16.9% reporting a rise in demand for flats.

The figure for flats stood at 36.9% in the previous three months and the Rics attributes the substantial decline to an oversupply in this particular sector of the market.

Overall, the Rics expects rents to continue to rise because many potential house buyers are remaining in the rented sector on fears of a house price crash.

Turning to research from from Alliance and Leicester Mortgages, landlord optimism seems to remain undaunted, with a recent survey showing that 71% of landlords questioned considered their prospects to be either good or very good, for the coming 12 months.

Seventy-seven percent reported that they are making a profit on their rental properties and 22% can save some of this income.

Professional landlords with 20 or more properties are doing even better, with 49% able to use their rental incomes to increase savings. Forty per cent use their properties as their main source of income.

Amongst landlords with only one property, 15% managed to save some of their profits and only 4% were able live off their rental income.