Half London landlords want to add more properties

The appetite to invest in London’s booming private rented sector is growing.

According to lettings and property investment group Young, almost half of investors (46.8%) quizzed in the third quarter of this year are considering adding to their London portfolios over the next year.

In comparison, a year ago the proportion of investors planning to invest in the next 12 months stood at 38.7%.

While only 27.1% of the surveyed landlords are considering purchasing assets elsewhere in the UK, this is also up, from 19.7% in Q3 2011.

London assets clearly remain more appealing to investors than those outside the capital but the data shows that there is still a healthy appetite for PRS assets in general.

Among those not actively considering investing in London, the top reason given was due to the difficulty of acquiring financing, rather than a lack of confidence.

Virtually all (94.3%) of investors predict that the capital value of assets in London will increase over the next year. This is an increase in confidence in the London market of 16% compared to this quarter last year.

When compared to this quarter last year, the number of investors predicting a rent rise in London has risen by 10%, meaning that 84.5% of investors expect the rents in London to rise over the coming 12 months. Investors expect rents to increase by an average of 2.2%.