After quizzing the landlords on its books, an online letting agent has revealed that only 5% of those surveyed described themselves as professional landlords, i.e. they owned five or more properties. The rest had another job and used buy to let to supplement their main income.
The professions where being a landlord on the side was most common included accountancy, working in IT, teaching, and administration.
Many part-time landlords were “accidental landlords” who came into the sector because they inherited a property or couldn’t sell their home. In fact, 53% of those surveyed only owned one property, so the majority of landlords are not making big money from buy to let, contrary to what the press would have us believe.
Multi-Tasking Landlords
“The reality is that wealthy, multi-property-owning landlords are quite rare. Most landlords are ordinary people working in regular jobs who are renting out a property to try and save for their retirement or to supplement their main income,” says Alexandra Morris from MakeUrMove.
The Gender Split
Interestingly, the gender split between landlords in the UK is fairly even. Data suggests that 46% of landlords are women, which equates to around 1.1 million female landlords in the UK. Some experts have suggested that this is because women view property as a low-risk investment and are more likely to get on board.
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