Almost four in 10 landlords believe that tenant demand for residential property will increase over the next 12 months, research by Paragon revealed.

A study by the mortgage provider in January found that 37% of landlords were expecting tenant demand to grow during 2020 – compared to just 7.3% predicting a fall.

The forecast came on the back of a strong end to 2019, when 27% of surveyed landlords experienced an increase in tenant demand during the final quarter of the year.

Paragon also highlighted figures from the Government’s recent English Housing Survey, which found the number of households in the private rented sector had remained unchanged at 4.6 million, or 19% of all housing tenures. The length of time that households are staying in private rented property was revealed to be increasing, however, from an average of 4.1 years to 4.4 years.

Paragon managing director of mortgages, Richard Rowntree, commented: “Although home ownership is increasing on the back of Government policies, there is clearly still growing demand for rented property for a variety of reasons.

“We expect to see tenant demand to continue to increase in the coming years and it’s important the private rented sector is adequately financed to ensure tenants have a good choice of property and rental inflation is kept under control.”

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