Talk Money

According to Alliance Leicester Mortgages London will remain the most popular region for property investment in 2008, with Scotland and the North of England experiencing the strongest growth.
Professional landlords, especially in London, are more successful than buy-to-let landlords. In Central London rental yields can be up to four times higher than buy-to-let properties in South East England. Scotland and the North of England are emerging as growth regions for property investment, forecast to generate 5% and 4% rental yields respectively in 2008.
Professional landlords with large portfolios are the most financially secure. Almost 50% of landlords who owned 20 or more properties were able to save a proportion of their lettings income, 40% of these landlords relied on their portfolios as their main income. Of all the landlords surveyed by Alliance and Leicester, 71% said they are optimistic about the prospects for 2008.
Jeremy Claridge, Head of Mortgages at Alliance and Leicester said:
“It is encouraging that buy-to-let landlords indicate they are feeling about the outlook for 2008. Regardless of a tough financial year, it is clear the buy-to-let property market is still healthy for longstanding landlords, especially for those in the south-east of the country.”

Data released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) shows that the slowing housing market has increased rental growth.
The difficulties for first time buyers to step on the property ladder has led to a rise in rented accommodation. The strong rental market and continued economic uncertainty means that the outlook is good for landlords. Jeremy leaf, a spokesman for RICS said:
“With rents still on the increase many would-be-buyers will find accessing the housing market even more difficult as they struggle to raise the capital for that first important purchase.  However, many landlords will still take solace from uncertainty in the economy and enjoy the gains from rising rents.”
RICS most recent quarterly Lettings Survey showed that the demand for family homes was higher than that for flats as the market for the latter has become saturated.  Compared to the second quarter of 2007, 25.2% more chartered surveyors reported a rise in the demand for rental houses in the third quarter of 2007.
However, due to stronger lending criteria and successive interest rate rises, there is some uncertainty in the buy-to-let market.