London leads buy-to-let confidence

The UK rental property market is booming and buy-to-let confidence is high, according to a new survey of landlords.

The research from mortgage lender Alliance & Leicester found that seven out of ten buy-to-let landlords were feeling optimistic about the coming 12 months, seeing prospects for rental profit as "good" or "very good".

More than three quarters of landlords questioned claimed to be drawing profits from their properties, with high demand across London making the capital a hotspot for rental.

Jeremy Claridge, head of specialist mortgages at Alliance & Leicester, said: "It is encouraging that buy-to-let landlords indicate they are feeling buoyant about the outlook for 2008."

He added that the capital would remain a prime location for rental property, explaining: "Our research shows that landlords' believe London will produce the highest rental yields in 2008 and remain very popular as investment areas."

Landlords holding properties in central London neighbourhoods claimed that rental yields could be more than four times higher on buy-to-let properties than in surrounding south-east areas further out of the capital.

News posted on 19th December, 2007