Private rental housing value exceeds commercial property

The value of housing stock in use in the private rental sector is now higher than all privately-owned commercial property, it has been discovered. A new report found that the value of rental property in the UK property sector is around £500 billion. This means that it is worth more than all privately owned commercial property, including shops, leisure facilities, factories, hotels, warehouses and offices. The report also predicted that prospects for property investors will improve with house prices "almost certainly" set to increase at a more rapid rate than commercial retail estate over the long term and noted that the private rental sector is having a stabilising effect on the market.

It is a result of the appalling effects on young owner occupiers last time that ARLA took the initiative and launched buy-to-let to re-build and re-finance the private rented sector and to mitigate the dreadful social consequences of housing boom and bust.