Yorkshire landlords selling up ‘typically make £5,000 less' than if they had sold in 2022

Landlords selling up in Yorkshire are facing dwindling returns on the sale of their property, which are now fetching around £5,000 less than they would have done a year ago, analysis suggests.

Property owners selling their investment can on average make a profit of £44,800 – down from £49,900 in 2022.

The fall is less steep than the average across England and Wales where landlords are typically seeing a 10 per cent drop of £10,500 in the sale price compared to 2022.

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So far this year, the average landlord in England and Wales has sold their buy-to-let for £94,800 more than they initially paid for the property, having owned it for an average of 11 years, according to estate agent Hamptons.

Landlords selling up will typically make around £10,500 less than they would have done had they sold in 2022, analysis suggests.Landlords selling up will typically make around £10,500 less than they would have done had they sold in 2022, analysis suggests.
Landlords selling up will typically make around £10,500 less than they would have done had they sold in 2022, analysis suggests.

This gain has shrunk by around 10 per cent or £10,500 and is similar to what landlords selling in 2016 typically achieved.

The gains Hamptons has calculated do not include tax and other charges, which would eat into any profits made by landlords from selling up.

Hamptons used Land Registry figures to make its calculations.

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Smaller terraced houses and flats, which have seen weaker price growth in recent years, have made up a higher share of buy-to-let sales so far this year, Hamptons said.

Mortgage costs have increased sharply in recent months and may push some landlords to sell up.

The estate agent believes it is likely that the amount made by landlords selling up will fall further on the back of both lower prices being achieved and a rising proportion of sellers having bought later in the house price cycle.

Despite the slowing pace of price growth, the proportion of landlords selling for less than they paid is limited, Hamptons said.

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It calculated that one in 16 (six per cent) landlords have sold at a loss so far in 2023, slightly up from one in 20 (five per cent) last year but down from one in 10 (10 per cent) in 2020.

However, nearly a fifth (19 per cent) of investors who sold a flat did so for less than they paid, researchers added.

Aneisha Beveridge, head of research at Hamptons, said: “As house prices start to slip back, there are signs that the landlords looking to sell today may have missed the top of the market.”

She added: “Lower house prices and higher rents will combine to shore up the rental market as more landlords hold off on the decision to sell.”

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Last year more than 211,000 buy-to-let mortgages were approved by UK lenders, equating to 13.6 per cent of total mortgage lending for the year.

There are currently around 2.74 million landlords in the UK, with more than two-thirds (68 per cent) over the age of 55.

Average rent in Yorkshire is £836 a month, compared to the UK average of £1,243.

According to comparison website U switch, terraced housing is the most popular type of property owned by UK landlords in 2022.

Almost one in five own houses in multiple occupation.