Rightmove data has revealed the extent of the Government tax clampdowns on landlords.
Figures for between October and December from the portal show that rental listings are down 22% annually in London and have fallen by 10% outside of the capital.
This lack of supply has pushed asking rents up by 2.7% annually, although they have fallen by 0.6% over the quarter to £798 per month.
The rent increases are more stark in London, with average asking rents hitting an all-time high of £2,034 per month, up 5.4% annually and 2.1% over the quarter.
The portal has predicted that asking rents will rise by 3% outside London and 4% in the capital during 2019.
Miles Shipside, commercial director for Rightmove, said: “When the Government introduced higher Stamp Duty on second home purchases back in 2016, it deterred many landlords from investing in the buy-to-let market, which in turn has exacerbated this ongoing dearth of available properties, and we’re yet to see any significant boost in stock from the many build-to-rent programmes.
“In addition, the more punitive treatment of tax reliefs has meant some landlords are also exiting.
“We forecast that average asking rents will continue to slowly strengthen further in 2019, by perhaps 3% outside London.
“In the capital there are no signs of an increase in buy-to-let activity, which may lead to asking rents growing further by around 4%.”
Comments (9)
well, what a surprise ( NOT ! ) pity is, the people affected Tenants
( Landlords customers ) won’t realise the cause of their increasing rents and Govt will be publishing ‘fake news’ about how its legislated to protect them, – asking for and Desperate for their votes at the next election.
The ‘ Electioneering’ that’s caused rent increases will be lost on the majority of Tenants. – as more of them struggle to find fewer homes at higher rents.
This govt really are morons. We’ve been telling them this since 2015 – before, even – yet still they attack and legislate where none of it is needed, always to the detriment of the sector and tenants in particular. Utter, utter twerps.
Shame the Tories buddies (donors) aren’t stepping up to the plate and providing the required number of BTR homes.
But never mind hopefully the Tory ministers will still get their fat-cat non executive Directorships at their buddies when they leave office ( when this Government falls and a General Election is called)
And stock will continue to decline once the consequences of tenant fee ban starts to bite and those idiots in Westminster haven’t finished with the industry yet … worse it yet to come.
This demonstrates the one law that our current crop of idiot virtue-signalling politicians consistently ignore – The Law of Unintended Consequences.
Expect rents to jump from June this year as well. Wonder why?
Shocking! Who could have expected that??
In other words exactly what myself and loads of other contributors to PIE predicted when the Govt started treating landlords as enemies of the state.
Landlords should be thankful that the death penalty has been abolished.