Feb 1, 2024 at 10:17 PM Update: 8 hours ago
Despite the introduction of stricter rules, residential landlords have not yet put their houses up for sale en masse. Their share in the total housing market has even increased, according to figures from the Land Registry.
In 2023, these housing investors owned 9.4 percent of all homes. A year earlier that was 9 percent and the year before that 8.6 percent. The increase is mainly because investors own a lot of new construction.
Housing investors have been under a magnifying glass for several years now. This is because they compete with, for example, starters on the housing market, who have less deep pockets and therefore sometimes make mistakes.
At the same time, investors are providing more supply on the rental market, which is also very tight. This concerns small investors with, for example, three houses, up to large property managers who have hundreds or thousands of properties.
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Stricter rules make it difficult for landlords
The outgoing cabinet has recently introduced various measures to reduce the turnout of landlords. For example, the transfer tax for this group has been increased in a few steps to more than 10 percent. In addition, municipalities may introduce a ban on residential rental under certain conditions.
Furthermore, a law is in the making that should limit the amount of rents. This Affordable Rent Act has not yet been approved and it is not yet certain whether the new House of Representatives will agree to it.
Yet housing investors view it all with horror. They state that renting out is barely profitable anymore and fear having to sell their properties. Rental platform Pararius saw that many landlords have put their houses up for sale in recent months.
Yet there does not appear to be a sales wave. Last year, landlords put 33,400 houses up for sale. A year earlier there were still 43,700 and in 2020 even almost 65,000. The number of sales has therefore approximately halved in three years.
Investors are reluctant to buy properties
The figures from the Land Registry show that investors have become reluctant to buy houses. For example, they bought 19,100 homes last year, compared to 37,600 the year before. In 2020, they even bought more than 70,000 properties.
“Since 2020, both sales and purchases from large and small investors have decreased,” the Land Registry reports. “Due to the policy measures taken and economic conditions, investors have not started selling more. They have, however, been buying less.”
The fact that they nevertheless have a larger market share is mainly due to new construction. Construction projects are often financed by large investors, for example investment companies or pension funds. The figures show that home ownership has increased, especially among large investors.
2024-02-01 21:17:15
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