Buy-to-let's future 'is stable'

News Category: Industry News

Landlords are likely to continue to find property a good long-term investment option, an industry expert has said.

Recently, some people have predicted that UK house prices could be heading for a crash, which would put pressure on the landlords who have invested heavily in property.

However, Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), explained that he did not expect a marked crash, but a stable slowdown.

He added that the market had not been significantly affected by recent interest rate increase.

"At the moment the market is still proving quite resilient even with the latest interest rate rises, although we are definitely seeing signs of things slowing up and perhaps prices now beginning to level out in some parts of the country," Mr Bolton King said.

"We personally don't think house prices are going to drop, we just think they're going to level out."

He continued, explaining that buy-to-lethad proved a stable investment tool over recent years.

"Despite what all the doom and gloom versions say, if you plot a graph over the last 50 years of investing £1,000, and you say what would've happened if I'd invested that in the stock market, or in gold, or in property - buy-to-let or whatever - property has still come out way on top," Mr Bolton King concluded.