Buying and selling residential portfolios

Abstract

The residential investment market in England and Wales is at a crossroads. Private renting in the UK fell from 90 per cent of the housing market at the beginning of the 20th century to 10 per cent at the end. The tide has now just turned and the size of the private rented sector (PRS) is slowly increasing. Large-scale investors are operating at this crossroads both with the remaining portfolios of historic tenancies and also with the first of those which have been set up since the 1988 Housing Act deregulated the market. This paper analyses movements in the market and looks for the rationale behind investors' decisions. Performance reviews and different methods for making profit in the sector are also studied. Finally the alternative exit routes are investigated. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications