'Great tenant demand' will fuel buy-to-let investment

News Category: Marketing

This article was brought to you by Rentman the premium property management system

First-time buyers unable to get onto the property ladder are set to fuel the demand for rental property in 2008, according to a market expert.

Fionnuala Earley, chief economist at Nationwide, told the Times that a combination of envisaged interest rate cuts and high tenant demand would help to keep buy-to-let profitable for landlords.

And while the credit squeeze has hit some landlords looking to add to their residential lettings portfolios, she claimed that there was unlikely to be mass outbreak of buy-to-let property selling.

"There will be those investors who want to crystallise gains, but those will be the speculators who are struggling to get tenants," Ms Earley told the newspaper.

"We are in a market where there is great tenant demand because first-time buyers are unable to get on to the housing ladder."

Figures published by the Council of MortgageLenders last year have underlined the strength of the buy-to-let sector, with an estimated 340,000 mortgages and loans granted to landlords in 2007.

Find out more about Marketing with letting agent software