Landlords Overwhelmingly Behind Conservatives

Of the 500 landlords polled, all of whom own residential property in the UK, 84% of respondents believe that that a Conservative government have the policies to bring the greatest benefit to residential landlords.
This contrasts with 13% of landlords who expect a Labour government to create the right conditions for the private rented sector to flourish.
Of the three main political parties, the Liberal Democrats appear to be languishing far behind in third place in the eyes of property investors. Only 3% believe that the Liberal Democrats would be good news for landlords.

Young Index: Headline Results for Q1 2010
• 100% of landlords intend to hold their residential property investments for the next 12 months.
• 47% intend to hold their assets for at least 10 years.
• 24% of landlords intend to retain their property investments for the next 20 years or more.
• The average period that residential property investors expect to hold their property investment assets is 12 years.
• 49% of investors are considering purchasing additional residential property assets within London over the next 12 months.
• 22% of investors are looking at opportunities in the UK outside of the capital.
• 78% of respondents believe that London prices will be at current levels or higher by this time next year.
• For UK property outside of the capital, 49% expect prices to be at current levels or higher by this time next year.
• Landlords expect to see an average price increase of 1.48% by this time next year, twice the increase they were expecting last quarter (0.7%).
• The predicted 12 month outlook for UK property prices outside the capital is a fall of 0.58%, compared to the drop of 1.0% predicted last quarter.
• 94% of respondents expect the Bank of England base rate to be higher than the current all time low of 0.5% by the beginning of 2011.
• The average base rate expectation for Q1 2011 stands at 1.25%, up from the 1.1% predicted for Q4 2010 in last quarter’s Index.
• 93% of landlords believe that Estate Agencies should be regulated.
• 86% of landlords believe that individual estate agents should be subject to regulation.
• 68% of landlords believe that they themselves should be regulated.
• 84% of respondents believe that that a Conservative government would bring the greatest benefit to residential landlords.
• 13% of landlords expect a Labour government to create the right conditions for the private rented sector to flourish.
• 3% believe that the Liberal Democrats would be good news for landlords.

To view the entire Young Index Q1 2010 results, including price outlook, interest rate expectation and landlords’ views on regulation, visit: www.younggroup.co.uk