Voids at lowest level in 13 years says Paragon

Annual void periods in the private rental sector have fallen to their lowest level since 2002 according to a leading mortgage lender.

Paragon Mortgages has surveyed a panel of landlord customers for 13 years, and the average void period reported in Q1 2015 - just 2.4 weeks - is the lowest since the survey began.

In the last quarter of 2014 the average void period was 2.6 weeks, and comparing the first quarter of this year against Q1 2014, the length of time a landlord has experienced a void has fallen by 14 per cent.

Landlords have been reporting low or falling void periods since 2013, with only a slight fluctuation in mid-2013 when the average climbed marginally to three weeks.

Void periods have been consistently low for some time, which is not unexpected when you also look at what landlords are telling us about the level of demand from tenants

says John Heron, director of mortgages at Paragon.

In our survey for the first quarter of 2015, 42 per cent of landlords said in their view tenant demand was either growing or booming and 54 per cent felt demand was stable. The housing market is currently experiencing a shift, with more people choosing to live in the private rented sector. This change in housing dynamics appears to be a continuing and long-term trend he says.