NLA defends buy-to-let

The National Landlords Association defended buy-to-let landlords against this accusation; Simon Gordon of the NLA believes this is not the case:  “This is too sweeping a statement.  A great many buy-to-let properties, particularly in London, are not the type of properties that first-time buyers will be buying.”

Mr Gordon cited the ‘buy-to-leave’ investor, those property speculators that leave property empty in order to sell when prices rise, as more at fault.

Second home owners could also be part of the problem, a recent report published by Nationwide confirmed that one in ten people in the UK now owns a second home that is only used at weekends, a sort of part time buy-to-leave investor.

It would seem that there could be a number of reasons for the dearth of first time buyers which include: buy-to-let, buy-to-leave, holiday lets, weekenders.  That is without including the recent uncertainties about the economy.  Mr Gordon summed the situation up:  “What people are doing is they’re treating the UK housing market as one market, but it’s not one market.”  The buy-to-let investor is not all to blame.