16th
Apr 2015
Great news for landlords in the private rented sector as a survey reports that landlords are experiencing the lowest level of annual void periods since 2002.
A buy-to-let lender has been carrying out surveys over the past thirteen years with a panel of their customers comprising of landlords. The company states from the survey's findings that in the first quarter of 2015, PRS properties were on average having just a 2.4 week dormancy period in between tenancies.
However this is no flash in the pan, as the panel reports that the void periods have been dropping consistently since 2013.
Since January to the end of 2014, it reported a massive drop of 14% of dormancy periods down to 2.8 weeks.
There was a single glitch in the middle of last year when the average void period peaked at 3 weeks.
A spokesman for the firm said: “Void periods have been consistently low for some time, which is not unexpected when you also look at what landlords are telling us about the level of demand from tenants.
“In our survey for the first quarter of 2015, 42 per cent of landlords said in their view tenant demand was either growing or booming and 54 per cent felt demand was stable.
“The housing market is currently experiencing a shift, with more people choosing to live in the Private Rented Sector. This is supported by the figures released this month by the English Housing Survey which show 4.4 million households are now privately rented, compared with 3.9 million households in the social rented sector. This change in housing dynamics appears to be a continuing and long-term trend.”
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