The UK Rental Sector Needs Professional Investment

The UK is facing a housing shortage emergency, particularly in relation to suitable housing for the private rental sector. The Government has recently posted measures aimed at relieving the situation and aims to encourage more professionals to invest in the buy to let market.

As it stands most of the privately rented houses are owned by individuals however there is a definite demand and requirement for larger scale investment in purpose built housing specifically for the rental market.

Recent tax alterations and the current market conditions have laid the foundations for investment in large scale developments for the rental sector by professional organisations.

The report mentions various recommendations and changes to try and speed up the building of these new rental developments and getting investment. With first time buyers facing difficulties saving deposits to get on the housing ladder and often finding they cannot qualify for due to very stringent borrowing conditions, there is a massive demand in the short term for suitable rental accommodation.

And it is not just first time buyers, many people looking to sell their current home and upgrade or downgrade are finding it difficult and so are turning to the rental market to rent out their own property or move into rented accommodation. But with such a shortage in houses for sale options are often limited.

The report states that councils should be more flexible in their approach to planning and agreeing designs and schemes. Councils should think about waiving the current requirement for new developments to have to offer a certain number of affordable housing options. Councils should also review applications currently stalled or rejected to see if these applications could be made available for the rental market, instead of for resale.

The Government must bring in incentives to encourage the building of developments specifically for rental and could allocate Government land currently just standing un-used for the purpose of such developments. The Government also needs to work closely with Councils and developers to identify good sites and a task force should be set up to help aid the schemes and regulate them.

There are currently over 3 million people in the UK in privately rented accommodation and this number os constantly increasingly.

There needs to be a big push to bring new developers and investors to the table and get them involved in large scale rental schemes. And a relaxation of the regulations now in place for organisations wanting to develop large scale sites or rent out properties. At the same time tenants need to be protected and be assured of a set standard of accommodation.

It is hoped there could be a boom in investment in housing development and rental sector through insurance companies, private investment firms and pension schemes.