Tenant demand continues to grow

Despite the chancellor George Osborne’s attempts to create what he described as a “level playing field” between landlords and those buying homes to live in, demand for properties to rent continued to increase in the first quarter of the year, fresh research shows.

Findings by the BDRC Continental, on behalf of Paragon Mortgages, found that tenant demand continues to be largely seen as either stable or increasing across the UK.

The volume of landlords reporting tenant demand as either increasing slightly or significantly reached 39% in Q1 2016, up from 34% in Q4 2015. A further 36% of landlords described tenant demand as being stable.

Findings from the survey also showed that there was a high level of tenant satisfaction, with 79% tenants surveyed insisting that they are satisfied with their existing landlord, reflecting the fact that more landlords are now going out of their way to provide an enhanced tenant experience and improve the quality of rental stock on offer.

“It’s good to see tenant satisfaction at such high levels. The sector often suffers from negative PR and the good work done by the vast majority of landlords to provide homes for those who cannot or do not want to buy goes unremarked,” said John Heron, director of mortgages at Paragon.

The research also found that 85% of tenants view their current rental property as their home and 69% think the level of rent they pay to be good or very good value for money.

With so many renters priced out of homeownership, the private rented sector continues to play a vital role in accommodating people, according to 89% of landlords.

“This survey clearly demonstrates that the PRS is increasingly providing longer term solutions in housing and that responsible and professional landlords are supporting the provision of housing to those that rely on the PRS for their home,” added Heron. 

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