Government urged to help landlords
The government has been urged to provide greater assistance to investors in buy-to-let properties.
Speaking at the Council of Mortgage Lenders' annual buy-to-let and private rented sector conference John Heron, managing director of buy-to-let mortgage specialist Paragon Mortgages, said that the government needed to offer better support for private landlords in order to boost the supply of rented homes in times of soaring demand.
"If we look abroad to countries around the world with larger private rented markets you find housing and fiscal policies considerably more supportive of private landlords, with tax breaks for depreciation and capital losses a routine element of the mix used to motivate landlords," he said.
"Such an approach in the UK would make investment less cyclical and more long-term, to the benefit of landlords, tenants and ultimately the UK plc."
According to Mr Heron, the UK is currently witnessing a quickly changing landscape in the housing market, with an increasing number of people viewing renting as a long-term living arrangement, as buying homes becomes more difficult.
"We appear to be at a critical point in the market's development as buy-to-let lenders face the challenge of supporting a major shift in the way in which we view housing and where we live," he said.
"The aspiration to own our own homes will always remain high, but the fact is that major socio-economic and demographic changes will result in an increasing proportion of the population living in rented housing for longer."
Mr Heron quoted government figures which show that, by 2016, there will be 4.1 million households living in rented property, compared to 3.4 million currently.
As such, there needs to be a major expansion in the stock of privately rented property to ensure the sector can keep pace with a sharp increase in demand, he said.
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