Property to Buy vs Property to Rent

Interest in the UK rental market continues to strengthen according to the above illustration which compares two Google search terms: ‘Property to rent in’ and ‘Property to buy in’ over the last 5 years.

Taken from Google trends, the data analyzed is run through various complex approximations and is able to formulate a trend based on the number of Google searches that occur over time using these specific keywords.

According to Google, the phrase ‘Property to rent in’ has an average monthly search figure of 110,000, almost 4 times the number of searches  compared to ‘Property to buy in’ which receives an  average of 33,100 enquiries per month, and the gap continues to widen.

In December 2004, the difference between the two search terms is marginal, where ‘Property to rent in’ achieves approximately 20,000 searches more than ‘Property to buy in’ compared to the most recent data where the gap difference stands at 77,000 searches per month.

It is also interesting to observe the general trend in both search terms.  ‘Property to buy in’ continues to fall in interest over the last 5 years with an all time low in December 2008.  Whereas, ‘Property to rent in’ has received the highest number of monthly searches this month over the last five years and is up approximately 8,000 searches from December 2004.

The highest number of searches peaked just over 300,000 for ‘Property to rent in’ at the start of 2008 and with predictions that house prices will continue to fall in 2009, I would make the assumption that our attention will continue to be diverted to the rental market and that we will receive a record number of searches for ‘Property to rent’ in January 2009.

The top 5 Google searches for the phrase ‘Property to rent in’ are:

1. Property to rent in London – 3,600
2. Property to rent in Bristol – 880
3. Property to rent in Birmingham and Nottingham – 720
4. Property to rent in Brighton and Sheffield – 590
5. Property to rent in Hull and Norwich – 480

The top 5 Google searches for the phrase ‘Property to buy in’ are:

1. Property to buy in London – 1,300
2. Property to buy in Brighton and Liverpool -  91
3. Property to buy in Leicester – 73
4. Property to buy in Cambridge – 58
5. Property to buy in Bath – 46

As a direct result from the difficulty in obtaining a mortgage and the decline in house prices, more and more first time buyers and homeowners are opting for rentals.  This is clearly highlighted by the latest figures from Your Move Estate Agency, where they are showing that the demand for rental property is up by 50 – 60% on last year.

Landlords and Letting Agents be advised. Following on from a relatively quite December, according to the 5 year trend, you should be prepared to take advantage for what is set to be the highest number of searches for property to rent in 2009.