The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has estimated that there will be 1.8m more people looking to rent their homes by the year 2025, LettingAgentToday.co.uk reported in October 2016.

It has urged the government to encourage the building of new homes to satisfy this demand.

According to the RICS, many landlords are not planning to purchase more buy-to-let properties. The government has recently penalised buy-to-let landlords by increasing stamp duty and reducing the interest tax relief on commercial buy-to-let mortgages. The RICS wants the government to reverse this measure and encourage buy-to-let landlords to invest more.

A more long-term measure is for the government to promote the building of large scale rented accommodation. The RICS proposes introducing tax breaks for new build rented property developers.

The RCIS believes that local governments can help by releasing the brownfield sites that they own for the use by rental property developers.

The RICS head of policy, Jeremy Blackburn said:

“The private rented sector became a scapegoat under the previous Prime Minister, and because of that it suffered. Yet with increasingly unaffordable house prices, the majority of British households will be relying on the rental sector in the future. We must ensure that it is fit for purpose, and the government must put in place the measures that will allow the rental sector to thrive. Any restrictions on supply will push up rents, marginalising those members of society who are already struggling.”