Landlords Increasingly Look To Purchase Properties with Sitting Tenants

The proportion of properties bought by landlords with a sitting tenant has reached the highest level since 2005, according to Countrywide Residential Lettings, which analysed over 65,000 rental properties.  Last year 11% of all rental properties bought by a landlord came with a sitting tenant, a fourfold increase on 2008. Landlords are increasingly recognising the value of keeping a reliable, long term tenant and are prepared to reward them with longer contracts. Tenants in properties sold as occupied have lived in their home significantly longer than the average tenant: a quarter of these tenants signed contracts of two years or longer compared to just 5% of tenants overall. This means for a growing number of renters, the decision to sell by their landlord does not affect their living conditions. Read more on the Countrywide website.