Landlords unlikely to be hit by HMO proposals

Published: April 14, 2008

Most people with buy-to-let mortgages will not be worried about potential new rules concerning Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO).

That is according to the Association of Residential Letting Agents (Arla), which said that HMOs tend not to affect most buy-to-let investors.

Proposals have been put forward which could see the number of HMOs limited in particular towns.

However, Arla is confident that most people with buy-to-let mortgages would not be negatively affected by this.

"HMOs are very much for the professional end of the market, it's not for typical buy-to-let investment," commented Malcolm Harrison, Arla spokesman.

"[Restricting HMO licensing] is not going to have an affect on the middle buy-to-let market at all, because that's not really where they are.

"You do get buy-to-let investments in flats and houses in university towns, but they won't - on the whole - be geared with HMOs," he added.

Recent figures from Arla showed that showed that buy-to-let returns increased in April.