Edinburgh letting market report
Inside letting, Issue 22, by Grant Denholm
After a difficult start to 2009 the letting market has stabilized. It is fair to say that thousands of extra properties flooded the market as 'reluctant landlords' found that the only short term way of keeping afloat was to let their property out. This resulted in a drop in the rents for one and two bedroom flats and properties were taking longer to let due to this added supply.
This view was echoed by Richard Matthews, Marketing Manager at residential letting portal lettingweb, who said: "The letting market in Scotland has seen rental values decline somewhat in 2009. High stock levels have forced landlords to reduce their expectations without the reward of securing a faster let. However, the upside is that the rental market decline seems to be slowing month on month suggesting that the downward trend may be leveling and soon to turn the corner"
We feel that due to the recession many people had decided to live at home with parents to save money and a decrease in the number of Eastern European workers has meant a reduction in potential tenants.
The market has changed positively over autumn with students taking up the stock. Larger traditional students flats let very quickly due to the growth in student numbers.
We found that students had to look to smaller flats as the larger HMO properties were not available. As a result rents in the three to five bed market saw slight increase whilst the rents of the two bedroom flats leveled out.
We are still in uncertain times but it would appear that the private rental sector landlord is in a position to come out of the recession in good health.