NI rental investors at risk warns report

Posted: 16 Feb 2007 10:05:16 GMT

New and inexperienced buy-to-let investors buying into Northern Ireland's current boom could be placing themselves at risk, a University of Ulster report has found

New and inexperienced buy-to-let investors buying into Northern Ireland's current boom could be placing themselves at risk, a University of Ulster report has found.

The rental sector has expanded 120 per cent in the last 15 years and may have already peaked said the report, commissioned by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.

"There is evidence of increasing numbers of vacant properties in the private rented sector," said Dr Paddy Gray of the University of Ulster.

"By 2004 there were over 12,000 vacant properties, bringing the total number of private rented properties to 75,000."

Half of all recent small-scale rental investors in Northern Ireland have financed their investment with borrowing, with half having loan-to-value ratios of 76 per cent or more.

This leaves them vulnerable to unexpected changes in the cost of borrowing or to changes in their own financial circumstances, said Dr Gray.


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