Renting ''allows choice''

Buy-to-let is a controversially popular way of purchasing a property at the moment but one expert says that it can benefit young people by providing better quality housing that they could otherwise not afford.

Malcolm Harrison from the Association of Residential Letting Agents says that by-to-let property investors actually open up new locations to people who are yet to afford buying their own home and need to simply rent.

He said that there is an ill-conceived general presumption that those who invest in properties in this way are preventing first-time buyers from accessing these houses, but Mr Harrison says that the rental market allows those with even less money to have access to areas.

Mr Harrison said: "In point of fact, the first time buyer probably cannot afford a lot of those properties; but the buy to let investor allows the first time buyer to live there.

"Certainly our ten year report in September suggested that buy to let investors have opened up a lot of locations and made them attractive to live in."

He added that young people often aspire to living somewhere nice rather than making up their mind to buy somewhere.


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