Nearly a third of British landlords increased their rental income across their portfolios in the first quarter of 2011, research from buy to let mortgage specialist Paragon has revealed.
It found that 32% of landlords have raised rents across their portfolios during the period and one in 10 landlords said that rental income across their portfolio rose by up to 2%.
A further 10% said that their income rose by between 2% and 4%. However, nearly 5% of respondents said that rental income had risen by more than 8%.
‘Supply and demand dictates rental pricing and landlords are experiencing significant tenant demand for their properties at present. Obviously landlords do not want to make rented accommodation unaffordable, but a considerable proportion of them have been able to make small increases to their overall rental income during the first quarter,’ said Nigel Terrington, Paragon Group chief executive.
‘Government figures show that nearly 300,000 extra households moved into privately rented accommodation in England alone last year and that is placing increasing strain on stock in the sector. It is encouraging that buy to let lending increased by 22% during 2010, but more needs to be done to ensure that the private rented sector can expand to sufficiently meet tenant demand,’ he added.
Meanwhile, Landlord Action, an organisation specialising in tenant eviction, has been approached my Mike Weatherley MP, to support an Early Day Motion which calls for squatting to be criminalised. The Early Day Motion has already been backed by 19 additional MPs from both sides of the House.
Landlord Action is calling on home owners to support the campaign in two ways. Firstly, by signing a petition which will be presented on 04th April at Downing Street, and secondly, by writing to their local MP encouraging them to back the campaign.
Essentially, squatters consume services that they have not paid for. Many would feel that it is wrong. We have been advocates of homeowner rights for over ten years, and we have seen the situation getting worse. It is reassuring to see that MPs such as Mike Weatherley are taking action to help the situation,’ said spokesman Yogesh Chandarana.
A spate of high profile, well publicised cases have brought squatting to the forefront of the National press recently, highlighting the growing injustice being done to homeowners by squatters, many of whom travel thousands of miles to engage in squatting knowing they will be protected by the law.
In one example, squatters in Brighton made a freedom of information request to see which council homes were empty. An obvious strategy to target homes, it clearly demonstrates the level of organisation that squatters are now achieving, added Chandarana.
‘The problem is that squatting is not a criminal act so they get evicted from one home and simply move on to another, to then be evicted and evicted and evicted. Brighton and Hove has been plagued by a number of repeat squatting cases and in at least the last seven years, police have made no squatting prosecutions due to the difficulties in obtaining evidence where technical criminal infringements have been made,’ said Weatherley.
‘We need to criminalise this act so these people can be held to account for their actions and we hope that the recent media attention around this topic will drum up enough support for the EDM to be submitted for debate in the House of Commons,’ he added.
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