House prices may be dropping and becoming more affordable but that doesn’t mean that the supply of homes is sufficient to offer what buyers are wanting.  Supply has dropped in the housing market as sellers have pulled their homes off the market or they’ve decided to wait till the market swings back into favor of the seller.  Meanwhile, households are choosing to rent as more buy to let properties come onto the market.  Landlords have been remortgaging and taking advantage of better buy to let products from lenders to add to their portfolios. 

There are of course those hopeful buyers that are still finding it hard to gain mortgage approval.  Deposits are high as loan to value levels remain much lower than what was on the offering table years ago.  It could take families many, many years to save for such high level deposits without help from other family members.  Luckily there has been help to landlords from lenders with a variety of mortgage and remortgage products to help stimulate rental supply.  According to the many surveys polling landlords data shows most plan to increase their property numbers and they expect business to continue to be good. 

There are those that are choosing rental property as a lifestyle.  Not all renters have been pushed off of the property ladder.  Some households have chosen rental property as a way to keep from being tied down to one location should job offers become better in a different part of the UK for them.  Others are choosing to lower their debt versus taking on a mortgage.  Still others are waiting out the house prices declines hoping for a better deal.  No matter the reason for rental property demand increasing landlords are benefitting from a growing buy to let market.