As the country’s new Prime Minister, David Cameron, sets about forming a historic coalition government with the Liberal Democrats and announces there will be an emergency Budget within 50 days, Bryn Cole, managing director of Paragon Advance comments on the changes he feels are necessary to push the stagnant lettings market in the right direction.
“It’s likely that the revised Budget will concentrate on reducing the country’s deficit by making significant spending reductions as opposed to any major legislative changes that would affect the housing industry. However, to have an effect on the lettings industry the new government need to work hard to get people moving. We need to see more housing stock being made available, better rates for buy-to-let mortgages, more incentives for new or existing landlords to purchase property to let, and an easing of the current lending criteria for both buy-to-let and first-time buyers.
“The difficulty in obtaining mortgages which has underpinned the market of late has forced tenants to stay in their rented properties for longer. There are far less buy-to-let mortgages available which has severely slowed down the number of new properties coming on the market from new or existing landlords. This has culminated in a fairly stagnant lettings market, with very few new properties available and even less existing ones being made available because of the increased time that tenants are staying put.”
