Previous
interview was Graham Brown of Shelter Scotland, interviewed by Isobel Fraser.
Bill Whiteford from BBC interviewing Neil
Livingstone, Douglas Dickson Property Management
[From 01:15:54]
Bill
Whiteford: “Well, listening to that is Neil Livingstone, director of letting
agents Douglas Dickson Property management, based in Glasgow. Morning to you.”
Neil
Livingston: “Good morning”
BW: “It’s
interesting, isn’t it? We’ve seen actually a change, almost by default, in the
sort of mix in housing in Scotland haven’t we? Away from council housing and
even owned property, to this sort of private letting, which is taking over.”
NL: “Well, I
think the increasing numbers of private landlords who have moved into the
market, certainly over the past ten years, is probably a direct response to many,
many years, in my view, of underinvestment in social housing, in one aspect.
And, secondly, since the financial crisis in 2009, it certainly has been a lot
harder for for tenants...”
BW: {Interrupting} “it’s been difficult to buy, for first time buyers.”
NL: “Yes, a lot harder for them to access finance. So you’ve had these two factors of years and years of lack of investment in social housing, and secondly shortage of supply in building of new properties.”
BW: “There’s
certainly a shortage of supply of houses all round. So that’s social housing to let, and also for
people to buy. Where have the buy to let landlords come from. Why the sudden
boom in people who own just one, or just one or two flats, say?”
NL: “Well,
certainly, from our perspective, we still see the buy to let sector as an
attractive investment opportunity for landlords, and they’re coming into the
market to really provide a service, and in our experience, most landlords, and
certainly all the landlords we represent, and good quality letting agents
represent are providing a good quality service to tenants. So they’re coming in
because there’s an economic incentive to be there. There’s a marked economic
drive, when you’re getting one percent, barely one percent return in bank
interest for your money, and you’ve got cash sitting there, the private rented
sector is still a relatively attractive opportunity.”
BW: “I’m
sure there are some great landlords, but it does look as if some are racking up
the rents. 7.3% higher here?”
NL: “I would
dispute those figures. Certainly from our experience managing the landlords
that we represent. Most...All landlords from our experience want to retain
their tenants. If you’ve got a good tenant, you want to keep your tenant in
there. If you think that they’re sitting in, probably one of your largest
investments, you want somebody who’s going to be in there, looking after it. So
actually most, many, landlords don’t increase rents while they have a tenant in
there, and most others tend to be very modest increase. The evidence that
certainly we have, from our portfolio that we manage it’s certainly modest
increases, and I’m talking particularly for the Glasgow market, that’s where
we’re in. Just to quote you some other statistics that I’ve come across, the
Office for national Statistics recently quoted that rental prices in England
increased by 2.8% in the last twelve months, and in Scotland it was 0.7%. And
this would also be backed up by LettingWeb, who are an online letting agency/portal
acting in Scotland, and their recent quarterly report, is up to the winter
quarter of 2016; is that one bedroom flats in Glasgow have only increased 2%
over the past twelve months, so after our variations, actually the evidence
that we have is that it’s more modest, and there has been...
BW:
{Interrupting} “It’s still more than inflation. So what is the average rental
cost per month? It’s something about seven hundred pounds, seven hundred and
fifty pounds a month?”
NL:
“Certainly for the...I’ve got the figures for the one bed properties in Glasgow
areas, it’s about five hundred and eleven pounds and two beds are closer to six
hundred and fifty pounds.”
BW:
“Ultimately, do you think we’ll be faced with the sort of rents that there are
in London where there’s a chronic property shortage. I see that the average
rent on a new tenancy is fifteen hundred pounds.”
NL: “I don’t
see that in the Glasgow market and the Scottish market. I think we don’t
have...It comes down, ultimately, to supply and demand issues and we’re not
seeing the same levels of house price growth that you see in the south of
England as well, whereas there’s been more modest house price growth in
Scotland as well, which would suggest there is more of an equilibrium of supply
and demand and, in the medium to long terms, the solution to all these problems
is; build more houses. Planners should be releasing more land to build houses
on.”
BW: “Okay.
Neil Livingston from Douglas Dickson property management, thanks very much.”
01:20:26
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