Rents rise and stock shrinks as landlords sell up

ARLA Propertymark (Association of Residential Letting Agents) has just published its March Private Rented Sector (PRS) Report and with rising rents and increasing sales, it’s not all good news. In March, agents reported a rise in the number of landlords selling their buy-to-let (BTL) properties, with an average of four selling up per branch, compared to three in February. The last time the number of landlords selling their BTL rose above three per branch was in November last year, when the letting agent fees ban was announced. Rising rents are also a concern. The number of tenants negotiating rent reductions rose month on month in March – in February, 2.2 per cent of agents witnessed successful rent reductions, whereas in March, 3.6 per cent reported this happening. On the other hand, a quarter (25 per cent) of letting agents saw landlords increasing rents in March – a figure which has not changed since January. Year on year, this is down by seven percentage points. In March 2016 almost a third (32 per cent) of agents were seeing rent increases. Rental stock levels steady but demand rises The number of properties managed per member branch remained the same as the previous month, with…