Last updated at 17:01, Friday, 03 August 2012

The ever-increasing demand for properties to rent is encouraging more prospective landlords into the housing market.

A survey by Paragon Mortgages shows that between April and June, 20 per cent of new mortgages were for buy-to-let landlords, compared to only 16 per cent from first-time buyers.

The trend is seen by some estate agents as evidence that Britain may eventually follow mainland Europe, where fewer people own their own house and renting is more common. Louise Rosling, who runs the lettings department at Penrith, Farmers’ and Kidd’s, believes we are witnessing a cultural shift.

“We are one of the only agents in the Penrith area with a dedicated lettings department and it has grown enormously,” she reports. “When I started in 1999 it was just myself and one property. Now there are four staff and we are letting out hundreds of properties.”

And though an economic recovery may bring more people back to buying she adds: “That’s years ahead. I think renting is going to become the norm.”

Several factors have ganged up against would-be property owners. Prices remaining high, few new houses being built, banks’ tight lending criteria and their demands for hefty deposits and job insecurity have all conspired against those who want to buy their own home

Carlisle-based estate agents such as H&H King, Homesearch Direct. Allan and BPK estate agents all offer lettings as well as sales, while Hayward Tod opened a lettings department early last year.

Nick Elgey, managing director of Cumberland Estate Agents – which this week became the latest to open a lettings section – shares Ms Rosling’s view that renting is here to stay, at least for the next few years.

“The current demand for rental property is expected to continue for the foreseeable future,” he says. “I don’t think anybody knows when there will be some meaningful recovery. When it comes there could be more demand for house sales, but I think we are a long way off that.”

He believes the culture is shifting away from Margaret Thatcher’s promotion of property ownership in the 1980s. “That ethos has eroded away. There are now plenty of people who don’t believe house buying is the investment it was once seen as.”

The Cumberland’s new lettings department opened at its Carlisle branch on Wednesday.

First published at 14:10, Friday, 03 August 2012
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk