Buy to Let to market is of vital importance say ARLA

According to a recent publication from the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA), Buy to Let investors are vital to the health of the whole housing market and without them there would be little or no choice in housing.

Adrian Turner, Chief Executive of ARLA, said "Again, our quarterly figures show that investment landlords are in the business of residential letting for the long term. This is vitally important. Without these investors, who have helped to save the Private Rented Sector by re-financing it, there would be little or no choice in housing. If that had happened, the probability is that house prices would have risen further and the social rented sector would have buckled under the pressure. So, we must ensure that investors are neither misled nor panicked as a result of ill-informed criticism of the sector."

The Arla quarterly review results show that 42 % of all investment landlords have one or two properties to let while one in ten have more than ten. Four out of ten Buy to Let investors have mortgage borrowings with a loan to value ratio of between 51 and 75 percent. A further quarter has borrowings that account for less than half of the value of their residential property investments.

Six out of ten of these investors expect to acquire further properties during the next twelve months and the average life expectancy of these investments is over 17 years.

The ARLA Review shows that the current rate of return on a cash investment in rental property is 11.32%, up 0.14%. On a geared - mortgaged - investment, the returns are 23.25%, up 1.57%. These returns include rental yields and capital appreciation.