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Buy To Let

Landlords bank £87,000 after selling in 2017

Paloma Kubiak
Written By:
Paloma Kubiak
Posted:
Updated:
12/03/2018

The average landlord who sold their rental property in 2017 gained £86,651 more than they paid for it, having owned the home for a typical 8.7 years, according to Countrywide’s monthly Lettings Index.

The capital earnings for landlords in 2017 were a slight increase from the average £86,302 recorded in 2016.

However, the average owner occupier selling in 2017 made bigger gains of around 7%, with an average of £92,886 as they owned their homes for longer – clocking in at nine years.

London landlords gained an average £253,981 – four times more than the average takings for landlords elsewhere.

One in four landlords who sold in the capital gained at least twice what they bought the property for an average 8.1 years ago.

Eight out of ten places where landlords made the highest percentage gains were in London, with Maldon in Essex and Pendle in Lancashire being the only exceptions with earnings respectively standing at 118% and 109% of purchase price.

North East landlords made the smallest gains with £23,874, with those selling in Selby in North Yorkshire making the smallest average profit of £9,703.

Meanwhile, the average cost of a new let in February rose to £954 per calendar month, from £935 in February last year – with rental growth slowing to 2.1% in February against 2.4% in January.

Rents in London also grew faster than any other region for the third month in a row to £1,686 – a 3.1% rise from last year.

Johnny Morris, research director at Countrywide, said: “House price growth has driven investor gains. Landlords selling in 2017 owned their homes for nearly nine years. In eight of those last nine years house prices have risen. Even in areas where price growth has lagged behind – most landlords have made a profit from rising prices.

“Rents continued to grow in January. London continues to see the greatest falls in the stock of available homes to rent, on the back of reduced investor activity, this scarcity of supply is driving rental growth.”