Charlie Bryant, CEO of Zoopla and its parent company Houseful, has questioned the financial viability of becoming a private landlord in Britain.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Bryant pointed out that individual buy-to-let investors are turning away from the rental sector against a backdrop of tax hikes, high mortgage costs and increased bureaucracy.
Bryant told the Telegraph: “Put that into the context of the potential returns from alternative investments, whether that is bonds, the equity market or, frankly, putting your money with National Savings and Investments (NS&I) and the attractiveness of owning a rental property as an individual private landlord, buying it for yield, is not there.”
The removal of tax relief on buy-to-let mortgages and the 3% surcharge introduced on second homes in 2016 are both cited in the interview as contributing to a less attractive landscape for landlords.
Bryant believes pension funds and private equity firms will fill the void left by a private landlord exodus, as they seek to capitalise on the burgeoning build-to-rent sector.
He told the Telegraph: “Undoubtedly the next iteration [of the rental market] is, particularly with potential planning changes, will be larger, more corporate institutional landlords, under the build-to-rent guise.”
Bryant goes on to suggest a number of reforms for the property market, including rules to shorten transaction periods and the broadening of access to Land Registry data to allow everyone involved to see information about the history of a property, including hidden service charges.
