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Buy to let property investors in the UK are not rushing to sell

They are taking a long term view of property investment and expect to hold onto them for up to 20 years and even if house prices continue to fall they are not rushing to sell, according to the Association of Residential Letting Agents.

It is this type of property investors who are maintaining the core growth in the private rented sector and providing the housing solutions for people during the recession, ARLA points out.

The organisation's latest research shows that the proportion of investment landlords who do not expect to sell during the next twelve months has risen sharply from 77% to 88%, according to the latest quarterly Review and Index from ARLA.

The life expectancy of residential property investments averages 16.3 years, with more than one in five investors expecting to maintain their investments for over 20 years, according to the index which is the largest independent survey of its kind in the private rented sector.

These investors report an average Loan to Value ratio across their portfolios of 56%. Only a third estimates their Loans to Value at more than 76%. The average rate of return on a Buy to Let investment over the past five years is 10.59% for an outright cash purchase and 21.54% for a mortgage-backed investment.

'Again and again, these independent surveys show that Buy to Let landlords are helping to guarantee the growth of the private rented sector and these are the people who provide the housing solutions for those hit by the current recession and in to the future,' said Ian Potter, Head of Operations for ARLA.

Landlords are now reporting that immigration from the new European Union countries is having less effect on the rental market than before. The proportion saying that immigration has some effect is dropping, while the proportion who believes that immigration now has a minimal or no effect is rising.

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