According to Paul Holmes, chief executive of property advice website Firstrung, more and more people are struggling to get a foot on the property ladder because homes are being bought to rent out many of which are left lying empty.
He added that the government must do more to curb youngsters being priced out of the market by buy-to-let investors who now make up 15 per cent of the market.
“We suggested a few months ago that a million first-time buyer properties have been taken out of circulation by the buy-to-let industry – in fact the damage could be even worse. Buy-to-let has had a catastrophic impact on the first-time buyer industry.”
His words are mirrored by those of Paul Diggory of the Chartered Institute of Housing, who said that buy-to-let investors were exacerbating the UK’s housing crisis and that a new tax should be introduced by government to help solve the problem.
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