Reluctant landlords fall

Category: Mortgages
Date: 9/1/2009

The number of reluctant landlords appears to be falling as confidence in the property market continues to show signs of a meaningful upturn.

Reluctant landlords have flooded the market but the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) has reported that 80 per cent of its members' offices have seen property rented out rather than sold.

The trend was adjudged to be one of the key factors in the property market downturn, but figures show that it is not as widespread a problem as it was last year.

The figure, although still high, represents a clear fall from the peak of 95 per cent in November 2008 when confidence and house prices dipped sharply.

"Many sellers were left with little option other than to rent their properties out earlier in the year but this trend seems to be slowly diminishing," commented Ian Potter, operations manager at ARLA.

"There are, however, still a high number of these reluctant landlords in the market who need to understand the obligation to their tenants."

The markets in the South East and London are showing signs of particular improvement, with 78 per cent and 72.5 per cent respectively of agents' offices in these areas reporting a decrease in the number of reluctant landlords.

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