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UK Rental Market Needs More Landlords According to Latest Research

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    Boost to Rental Property Supply Would Alleviate Supply-Demand Imbalance

    One of the defining features of the UK rental market in the past few years has been the continuing supply-demand imbalance. This mismatch between the number of renters and available rental properties has persistently pushed up rental costs.

    While this is good news for landlords currently in the market, this undersupply is detrimental to renters, and new research from Zero Deposit has confirmed further that the answer is more landlords buy-to-let investing to supply the market with available rental properties.

    They analysed how many rental properties currently listed on the market can be tenanted immediately and how many require the tenant to wait for some time before they can move in.

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      Why is the UK in Need of More Landlords?

      The latest analysis from Zero Deposit includes a look at nearly 128,000 current rental market stock listings and a breakdown of how many are ready to be moved into and how many won’t be available for a month or longer.

      They found that only 49% of current rental market listings are immediately available to move into immediately. 16% are available within the month, and 11% aren’t available for up to three months. 24% of current listings aren’t available to move into for six months or more. According to Zero Deposit, supplying more stock to the rental market is one of the reasons to invest in a buy-to-let.

      Sam Reynolds, CEO of Zero Deposit, commented: “Rental market supply is arguably the biggest issue within the sector today, and such is the demand for rental homes that many are being listed to let before they are even available.

      “This demonstrates the severe imbalance between supply and demand and really does highlight the need to encourage more landlords into the sector and provide sufficient incentives for them to stay there, in order to provide the vital rental homes needed.”

      Further Reading: Do you want to know how to get into property investment in the UK? Take a look at our guides about investing in UK real estate.

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      Regional Breakdown of Available Rental Stock

      Zero Deposit’s data also reveals regional differences in available rental stock. The area with the highest proportion of immediately available rental properties is the West Midlands, with 56%. Other regions with a high percentage of rental properties available right away included the East of England (53%) and London (52%).

      When it comes to regions that are in urgent need of new landlords to bring listings to the market, the North East had just 42% of current stock immediately available for tenants to move in. 35% of the listings won’t be available for six months or more.  This highlights how property is one of the safe investments for passive income in 2024.

      The Southeast is another region where it’s tough to find a rental property for moving straight in. 44% are immediately available, and 25% won’t be ready to move in for another six months.

      This lack of properties, despite high demand, shows there is plenty of room in the market for more landlords and a large pool of potential renters. This will minimise void periods, and tenants are willing to pay more for quality properties due to the lack of supply – a further incentive for investors to enter the buy-to-let market.

      To learn more about the UK buy-to-let market, take a look at some of our property investment area guides, covering topics such as available investment property in Sunderland and available investment property in Luton.

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      Author

      Jessica Ferris

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      Jessica is a property content writer at RWinvest. Keeping a close eye on the UK property market, Jessica helps our readers stay informed and up to date on the latest market news and statistics.

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