Landlords urged to help flood victims

News Category: Marketing

The heavy rain and flooding in much of the UK in recent weeks has caused an acute shortage of available rental properties in these areas, a new report suggests.

In the aftermath of the recent flooding some 27,000 homes and 5,000 businesses have been damaged - leaving people living in temporary accommodation like hotels.

As a result, the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) has urged landlords with vacant and undamaged properties in the areas to come forward and make these available for rental.

While prime minister Gordon Brown recently made £14 million available to help the worst-hit areas recover, NAEA said that this would do little to relieve the short-term suffering of people made homeless by the event.

"Individuals, couples, families and the elderly have been forced to leave their damaged homes and move to cramped hotel rooms due to the acute shortage of rental properties currently available," explained Peter Bolton King, chief executive of NAEA.

"It is with this in mind that we are urging owners of vacant properties in the flooded areas and the surrounding locations to place their properties available for rent.

"This will help ease the shortage and help victims of this recent torrent of flooding across the UK to start rebuilding their lives."

Recently, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said that it expects the total amount of damage caused by the flooding will exceed £1.5 billion.