Telegraph Property Club: Private rented sector outstrips all other investment property

In a report on the housing market for ARLA, Michael Ball, Professor of Urban and Property Economics at the University of Reading, comments: “the modern private rented sector is helping to stabilise the housing market because it is housing people who, if they had become owner occupiers in the past few years, would at this stage of the housing market cycle be over-stretched borrowers with rising negative equity. Landlords are generally more financially able to withstand housing market shocks and, as tenants rather than holders of negative equity, younger households will be in a better position to purchase properties as the market begins to pick up again. Housing investors are also likely to be some of the most active purchasers over the next few years, as they search out bargains.”