Landlords who sold a buy-to-let property last year made a capital gain of £86,660 on average in the UK and had owned it for just under nine years, it has been revealed.
But the capital gains made in London put these national figures to shame. Landlords selling up in London last year made a capital gain of £254,000 on average per property, says Countrywide.
Its latest buy-to-let research reveals that, therefore, a landlord who invested in property within London eight years ago will have made three times more money from selling their property than those outside the capital.
Eight of the top ten places where landlords have made the largest capital gains from their buy-to-let properties are in London and include Brent, Waltham Forest, theCity of Westminster, Haringey, Lambeth, Pendle, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea and Southwark
Buy-to-let gains
In these areas landlords who sold up last year enjoyed huge capital gains including, in Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea, gains of over half a million pounds on average.
Also, in these areas of London 28% of landlords who sold up last year doubled their original investment.
“Even in areas where price growth has lagged behind, most landlords have made a profit from rising prices,” says Johnny Morris, Research Director at Countrywide.
These figures are based on Countrywide’s own sales and lettings operations. Last year it sold 41,722 homes, down 17% on the previous year, and had 62,646 rental properties on its books.
Rents have also been reducing, the company says, down from a year-on-year increase of 2.4% in February to 2.1% last month.The average rental per property for new tenancies at the moment is £1,686 a month in London and £954 outside the capital.
“London continues to see the greatest falls in the stock of available homes to rent, on the back of reduced investor activity, this scarcity of supply is driving rental growth,” says Johnny.
Read more: Does buy-to-let still stack up?
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