Green shoots for landlords?

The last couple of days have seen a host of stories about landlords, buy-to-let mortgages - and often the main messages have been contradictory.

Research from the Association of Residential Landlords, ARLA, is claiming that tenant demand is decreasing  whilst landlords are increasingly willing to buy new investment properties. At the same time, a third of landlords questioned by Paragon Mortgages found that buy-to-let finance is becoming more readily available.

So, are we facing a situation where landlords will be struggling to fill their flats? Far from it. Taking a closer look at the ARLA survey, tenant demand is based on members stating whether they believe there are more tenants than properties. This quarter, 54% said they felt demand outstripped supply, down from 57% last quarter. So, more than half of the landlords asked feel that demand continues to outstrip supply.

This will remain the same for the foreseeable future, especially in a city like Edinburgh. Here, demand continues to grow because the number of students coming to the city grows (and is forecast to grow) year on year.

At the same time, recent graduates are no longer in a position to buy a property immediately after they finish university which has lead to growth in the professional lets market. Combine these developments with researching the property you're interested in and investing in a sought-after area and property remains a solid investment.