During the third quarter of this year 51 per cent said demand was stable, while 41 per cent of buy-to-let landlords surveyed by Paragon Mortgages said tenant demand was growing or booming.
The buy-to-let mortgage lender’s private rented sector trends survey, which included responses from 196 landlords, also found that 61 per cent of landlords felt that the level of tenant arrears would remain stable over the next 12 months.
In comparison, 12 per cent stated that tenant arrears would increase and 8 per cent expect a decrease.
John Heron, director of mortgages at Paragon, said that while just over a third of landlords feel optimistic about the prospects for their rental portfolios, it’s “difficult” to gauge how the wider buy-to-let market has performed and what likely lending volumes for the calendar year will be.
Last year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported total buy-to-let lending as £20.7bn.
He said: “Current thinking is that gross buy-to-let lending this year will be around the £25bn mark, which represents a healthy increase over 2013; but there has been some evidence that the rate of growth has slowed as the year has progressed.”
peter.walker@ft.com
