A team of independent fact checkers and campaigners has debunked Labour's claims that most renters live in homes bought with a buy-to-let mortgage.
Deputy leader Angela Rayner made the assertion last week, but charity Full Fact says the claim is technically incorrect, as it holds true only for the private rented sector, not for overall rentals. When social renters are included in the total, about a third of renters live in buy-to-let properties.
Full Fact says all MPs, including shadow ministers, should correct false or misleading claims as soon as possible in their capacity as public representatives.
The English Private Landlord Survey found that in 2020/21 the PRS in England accounted for just over 4.4 million households. Over half (57%) were BTL landlords with an existing mortgage, representing 61% of privately rented tenancies.
Regulator of Social Housing statistics show that a further 4.4 million homes are being rented from both private and local authority registered providers. This means that roughly 8.8 million households live in rented accommodation in total, of which 2.7 (31%) million are owned by buy-to-let landlords.
Although there have been concerns that rising mortgage interest rates could drive many of those landlords with existing buy-to-let mortgages out of the market, Aneisha Beveridge (pictured), head of research at Hamptons, told Full Fact: 'We estimate that by the end of this year, landlords are likely to have sold 303,840 more buy-to-lets than they bought since 2016 which was when a raft of tax and regulatory changes were introduced.
"That said, these numbers won't reflect the rise in the number of institutional investors buying-in through schemes such as Build to Rent which will have helped close some of that supply gap.'�
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