The UK rental market is set to explode over the course of the next four to five years, as a fundamental shift is occurring in the sector.  More and more Brits are renting their home out and living in a different, more suitable home for their needs.  This is creating a flood of homes being placed on the market for rent.  Combine that with the fact that mortgage lending is strict unless you are applying with a huge deposit and squeaky clean credit, and the rental market will only surge with growth over the next several years.

The estate agency Savills has quantified the movement toward the reverse of mass home ownership.  They predict that within five years 20% of those living in the UK will be renting from a private landlord.  Today, that figure is only 15%.  In the late 1980’s the total was only half that, at 7.5%.

Director of Savills Residential Research, Yolande Barnes, commented on the movement currently taking place, saying: "There is a fundamental change going on in the DNA of the housing market."

The reality is this.  Only 40,000 households have started on the property ladder in the last 2.5 years.  A disturbing number of 72,000 have moved into the rental market.

Barnes continued: "We're finding that even if you have bought a home in the last five to ten years, you haven't got enough money or equity to trade up, so we're seeing the cycle go into reverse. We are also seeing increasing amounts of let-to-rent, where people are unable to sell, so they rent out their home then rent another that is more suitable for their need.”

A buy to let specialist, Dragonfly Property Finance, commented on the buy to let market and its current growth, saying: "Buy to let is beginning to boom once again. A growing number of amateur landlords are keen to tap into soaring rents.”