How to spot a landlord. Could you pick one out of a crowd?
If this was a wildlife documentary then you might expect to hear Sir David Attenborough explaining in his distinctive tone, that far from being threatened by extinction, population numbers of landlords are thriving in the UK.
According to new research by the Strategy Society Centre (SSC), the number of landlords, as a proportion of the UK population, has more than doubled over the past 20 years with HMRC figures showing some 1.9 million private landlords operate on our shores.
- 1.9 million private landlords operate in the UK (HMRC)
- They are wealthier, better educated and more likely to have grown-up in an owner-occupied home (SSC)
- Landlords earn £1,000 per month more than tenants (SSC)
Indeed with the 2011 England & Wales census revealing that more of us than ever before are renting, in excess of 3.6 million people, and that the private rented sector is worth an estimated £893 billion, being a landlord is an attractive prospect for many but who are they? Could you spot a landlord out in the wild?
The SSC, using data on 40,000 people from the UK Wealth and Assets Survey, took on the challenge of tracking down the increasingly prolific UK landlord looking at demographic, socioeconomic, financial and letting characteristics.
In short, the survey revealed that landlords were wealthier with higher incomes, better educated and more likely to have grown-up in an owner-occupied home. A somewhat predictable result one may think but the survey also revealed some interesting trends.
Firstly, due to the rise of Generation Rent, landlords and tenants sit within a similar age bracket, 48 and 32 years old respectively. Renting is no longer only a young person’s game, more and more families are renting for life with many savvy landlords tapping into this lucrative market sector.
For those landlords who haven’t made it their full time career and remain in employment elsewhere, they typically earn about £1,000 per month more than tenants highlighting the financial disparity between the two groups. On one side of the coin, the mean financial wealth of private landlords is £75,103 according to the SSC report compared to the other with a mean of £9,506 for tenants. Landlords are so markedly more affluent in fact that two thirds said that they could permanently cope, without any difficulty, with a 25% income reduction.
Commenting on the findings, Richard Patterson, Director of leading online estate agency, MyOnlineEstateAgent.com and himself a hands-on landlord for 7 years, says,
“When I was younger, I never dreamt that I would be a landlord. It was always something that other, older people did but having worked hard early in my career I wanted to make my money work equally hard and felt that property was the best way to do that. I purchased my first property, a 2 bedroom apartment in Harrow back in 2008 and never looked back.
”What has surprised me though is how many of my friends, family and colleagues have done the same. Some have one or two buy to let properties, mainly to top up their monthly income and as a pension pot but others have gone on to become career landlords but if I look at them, their ages, level of income and owner-occupier background, I should have seen it coming.”
The rapid growth in the private rented sector is a trend also seen by MyOnlineEstateAgent.com with the number of new properties listed each month for rent on the site doubling from January to June this year.
So if you are a UK landlord looking to purchase your next buy to let property or indeed find a tenant or a tenant looking to find your perfect next home, then visit MyOnlineEstateAgent.com or call 0845 257 1101 for more information.