Prospective home sellers turn to letting

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

There was an increase in the number of buy-to-let landlords in the first quarter of 2008, as a number of prospective property sellers chose to enter the rental market in order to take advantage of rising yields.

That is according to a new survey published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), which revealed that the credit crunch and subsequent drop in demand in the housing market is putting property owners off selling.

The net balance of chartered surveyors reporting a rise in new landlord instructions increased to 29 per cent, up from minus two per cent in the previous quarter.

James Scott-Lee, a spokesperson for Rics, commented: "The sales market's loss is the lettings market's gain. Some would-be sellers are retreating from selling and letting or re-letting their properties as they wait for mortgage lenders to offer buyers more favourable lending criteria."

According to a survey from Paragon, the slump in housing sales has pushed the average age of tenants up to 32.8, from 31.0 at the beginning of 2007.

Find out more about letting agent software