Demand for quality rental properties in Bolton and Bury is outstripping the supply to the market, and this has forced the rental prices up.
There are a variety of reasons for the limit of supply of property to the Bury and Bolton rental market, but one of the main ones is that a number of landlords have decided to leave the rental market. This is perhaps due to the changing pressures on the business model of being a landlord. There have been increasing tax burdens, increasing mortgage rates and regulatory changes for landlords which all have contributed to some landlord investors to look at selling their rental properties and investing elsewhere, where there is less burdensome obligations and costs. Responsible landlords are an essential component of our economy and housing market, if the market place loses too many it has a notable impact.
One way of addressing the supply side conundrum is for more properties to be built to serve the rental market. As has been the case for some time the UK is not building enough new property to keep up with demand, and this issue has been compounded for several years particularly in Bolton and Bury.
Inflation and the cost of living crises has impacted everyone; businesses, tenants and landlords alike. This in conjunction with higher interest rates may well make purchasing a property further away for some people. Lifestyle changes post Covid-19 restrictions has likely had an impact on the demand levels too, as students have returned to universities (Bolton, Salford and Manchester locally) and people are less likely to be working from home.
There are less properties to choose from and potentially more people looking to rent so this inevitably means an increase in rents.
From an enquiries and potential tenants perspective, we have seen notably higher levels of enquiries than last year, which in turn was up on the year before. We have a significant number of potential tenants registered with us, who we contact as a new rental property comes to the market. For some properties there can be over a 100 people to contact before we have even began advertising. It is therefore potentially a competitive marketplace from a tenants perspective and possibly a good time to be a landlord as rents have increased and the likelihood of vacant periods is slim.
