Tenant numbers 'on the rise' - buy to let mortgages

12 August 2008

A new survey has revealed that the number of tenants is rising substantially, offering more opportunities for those with buy to let mortgages to rent out property.

Estate agency Your Move has announced that its research has found a 38 per cent increase in the number of new tenancies in the year to June 2008, Property Wire reports.

The firm attributes this fact to the difficulty first-time buyers have had getting on the housing ladder as they have no longer had 95 per cent and 100 per cent loan-to-value mortgages available to them.

Commenting on how this has led to many would-be buyers renting instead, managing director of Your Move David Newnes declared: "For landlords this is a cloud with a gold-plated lining."

The lack of activity in the owner-occupier purchasing market was emphasised by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors today.

Its latest figures show the number of average transactions per surveyor in July was the lowest it has ever recorded at 14.4 each.