Private rental sector to grow

The private rented sector is expected to account for 15 per cent of all UK housing by 2017.

That is according to the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (Arla), which says that buy-to-let investors have changed the face of private rented accommodation.

Arla says that it does not anticipate seeing private renting take off in the way that it has elsewhere in the world, but it does predict strong growth in the sector.

"I don't think we'll ever get to the proportion of renting that you see in Europe, and North America, actually," commented Malcolm Harrison, Arla spokesman.

"All our forecasts suggest that the private rented sector will increase from its current 11 per cent of all housing to round about 15 per cent of all housing in the next ten years. By the end of the eighties the private rental sector had nearly died, and it picked up through the nineties.

"Then buy-to-let gave it a boost primarily by bringing better standards into the rental sector," he added.

Arla recently said that buy-to-let property investors are charging record rents in the UK as costs rise but demand continues to soar.

Related Articles