Private Renting set to grow by 6,800 Oxford households by 2025

During a property viewing recently, a landlord brought up the subject of a report he had read from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that stated almost 1.8m new rental homes are needed by 2025 to keep up with current demand from tenants.

If RICS and PwC are correct, what does it mean for Oxford? The fact is, as a country, we are facing a precarious rental shortage and need to get Oxford building in a way that benefits a cross-section of society, not just the fortunate few. In my opinion the Chancellor of the Exchequer should to drop the higher stamp duty tax on buy to let purchases and ease the pressure on the rental market.

Of the 58,700 households in Oxford, currently 41,400 tenants live in 16,000 private rented properties. If we apportion the 1.8m households that RICS said will be needed equally around the Country, that means in nine years’ time, the number of rental properties in Oxford needs to rise by 6,800 (i.e. 42.8%),  taking the total number of rented properties in the city to 22,800.

That means Oxford landlords need to buy around 800 properties a year between now and 2025 to meet demand – because according to my calculations, an additional 17,700 people will want to live in those 'additional' Oxford rental properties.  So why is the government penalising landlords?

Thankfully the new housing minister Gavin Barwell has ensured Teresa May's new administration doesn’t have the singular laser-like focus of only home ownership to solve our housing issues. The private rented sector became a stooge under David Cameron's watch and still, with increasingly unaffordable Oxford house prices, many new Oxford households will be relying on the rental sector in the future for housing. I can only say, Westminster must put in place the measures that will allow the rental sector to flourish. Any restrictions on the supply of rental property will push up rents (bad news for tenants), further side-lining those members of Oxford society who are already struggling. Let's hope this new Government continues to see the contribution landlords make to an integrated housing strategy, buying precious time for house building to catch-up with demand.