A property investment consultancy is reporting a “new breed” of reluctant landlord as a result of the faltering UK market. Cluttons said more and more property investors are opting to let their properties out during the current slump and were missing out on opportunities due to inexperience.
The firm said some were “unrealistic” about rents while others were unprepared for the administrative burden attached to renting homes out. Cluttons lettings specialist Lynn Hilton said:
“Many of our new landlords are not entering the lettings market by choice and they have a great deal to learn about the business.
“A number of them are missing out on opportunities to let their property by refusing to budge at all on the asking rent, instead settling for void periods, which every professional landlord knows is seriously detrimental to yields.”
Alice Blount, owner of a five-bedroom stone cottage in Wootton, Oxfordshire, has suddenly found herself facing the prospect of becoming a landlord, two months after putting her home up for sale.
She said:
“With the market being so slow, we feel we have little choice but to put our house up for let and sale, and take whichever comes first.
“We are anxious about who our future tenants might be, whether they will default on payments, upset the neighbours or fail to maintain our garden.”
However, Cluttons reports that on average properties on the market for four months without a sale are successfully being let within two weeks.
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