Rental boom see tenants take drastic action

He says:

“The Birmingham city centre rental market has just gone crazy.

"We recently rented out 45 properties in one month and tenants are actually now taking on properties without even viewing the property, but simply agreeing to apartments after looking at pictures and marketing material on the Belvoir website.

“In particular, some of our international tenants are securing properties whilst still abroad in case they miss out before they arrive in the UK for their studies.

"We are working incredibly hard and making sure that the property pages on our website are updated every 24 hours to ensure all properties are current and still available.

“I have spoken to some of our competitors and there are hardly any rental apartments left on the open market.

"This is in complete contrast to the market about four years ago when we were literally flooded with apartments and would have about 100 on our books at any one time. We are now down to our last few properties and unfortunately have been forced to turn down tenants down as we have no rental properties left."

Major blames the problem of tenant demand outstripping supply on landlords being unable to access the funds needed to expand their portfolios. 

He says:

“Landlords are often unable to secure a BTL mortgage and when they do the underwriters are requesting higher deposits of 20 to 30%, which can work out at about £40,000 and is too expensive for many landlords to afford.”

Dorian Gonsalves, Belvoir MD says:

“The Council of Mortgage Lending recently revealed that during the second quarter of this year remortgaging hit its highest level since the final quarter of 2008.

"The changes in the current market in relation to landlords reentering the buy to let market and remortgaging to release capital to invest in additional properties is entirely driven through the demand for properties, which at the moment is extremely high.

"Whilst this is not the case in all areas of the country, many Belvoir agents, including Major Mahil in Birmingham are now experiencing unprecedented tenant demand.