There are two major factors helping to put the brakes on rental growth in the near term. First: supply. When the former Chancellor announced a 3% stamp duty surcharge on additional homes in 2016, buy-to-let investors scrambled to buy properties before the 31st March deadline.
As a result, we saw a glut of properties marketed for rent in the second half of 2016 and early 2017, which has helped to keep rental value growth low. Asking rents across England and Wales grew just 1.9% in the year to June 2017, and fell by 3.2% in London.
Since June, the London market seems to have accommodated this new supply and rental values have stabilised. And with government removing tax relief on buy-to-let mortgage payments, we expect to see new rental supply slow down over the next few years – unless build to rent developers can step in to fill the gap.
The second major factor affecting rental values over the longer term is affordability. Historically, rents have grown largely in line with wages. However, recent wage growth in the UK has been stagnant as Brexit-wary employers try to limit their costs. With rising levels of employment, this is forecast to change, with incomes set to head back to real growth by 2019.
Given how tightly affordability is stretched in London, and the levels of supply we have seen over the last two years, we see no pressure for rents to rise in excess of wage growth.
Withdrawal of mortgage interest tax relief will push investors from London to higher-yielding regional locations. Increased rental supply there will dampen potential rental growth. The outlook is strongest for cities that attract employees from high-value sectors such as finance, technology, and professional services.
.png)
.png)
