New figures from Countrywide show that the average size of landlords’ portfolios tends to be small, with only 6% owning more than a single rental property.
The Countrywide Residential Lettings Index found that landlords in London have the smallest average rental portfolio size with only 4% of landlords owning more than a single property.
The cost of purchase and size of deposit required, being a significant barrier to increasing portfolio size. London also has the largest proportion of landlords living more than 100 miles away, with more than one in five landlords doing so, which is nearly twice the UK average.
The research also reported that more than half (56%) of buy-to-let landlords in the UK live within 10 miles of their rental property.
The North East had the highest number of landlords living within 25 miles of their property (83%), followed by North West (81%) and East Midlands (71%). London was at 60%.
In more rural areas such as Wales and the East of England, the low proportion of landlords living within 10 miles of their rental property is explained by a sparse population. Instead of investing in the same village or town, landlords choose to live further away whilst still remaining close enough to keep an eye on their asset. The proportion of landlords living between 10 and 25 miles away in Wales and the East of England is the largest in the country.
The index also found that the average monthly rent in the UK in February 2014 was £861, up 0.2% month-on-month and 3.1% year-on-year. Seven out of 10 regions saw a month-on-month decrease in average monthly rent, with Yorkshire and Humber seeing the greatest decrease, down 6%, followed by the North East, down 3.1%.
Of those regions that saw an increase in average monthly rents, Central London and the South West saw the greatest month-on-month increase, up 4.1%.
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Comments
Would be useful to also report the % of private rented homes that are owned by landlords who own more than one property.
Which of course is a different question.