Led by Sir Adrian Montague, the review will examine what barriers exist to greater institutional investment in the private rented sector, and how the supply of these properties can be increased in line with rapidly growing demand.
Ian Fletcher, director of Policy (Real Estate) at the BPF will advise the review as part of a nine strong expert industry panel.
The BPF today urged the property industry to throw its weight behind the Review and to send its views to Sir Adrian’s team.
‘The industry has a golden opportunity to articulate why residential investment could be an attractive asset class for institutions and what prevents the considerable interest in the sector turning into a greater flow of funds into it,’ said Liz Peace, chief executive of the BPF.
‘Sir Adrian is an excellent choice to lead the Review and I hope this call for evidence elicits a positive response. Our country needs a lot more homes and there has probably never been a better time to make the case for building to let,’ she added.
Current UK institutional investment in housing from companies such as insurance or pension funds is estimated at less than £4.5 billion by IPD, just a fraction of the estimated £840 billion total value of the private rented sector.
At present it is dominated by small landlords, who lack the resources to underwrite the development of new housing, but recent research by property agents Savills suggests the sector has the potential to develop 125,000 homes per year by 2016.
The review will aim to build on work already undertaken by the government and supported by the BPF, such as changing the stamp duty land tax regime for bulk residential purchases, reforms to residential Real Estate Investment Trusts in the United Kingdom, and the Homes and Communities Agency's private rented sector initiative.
