Buy-to-let gives way to sell-to-rent-back

Clouds are gathering over the UK housing market - and desperate sellers are increasingly turning to sell-to-rent-back companies. But homeowners should be wary of this unregulated industry.

Clouds are gathering thick and fast over the UK housing market. In the first six months of this year, repossessions rose 30% on last year, leading to a 22% quarterly rise in the number of properties sold at auction in the second quarter of this year, says the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The RICS reckons that as many as 45,000 homes could be repossessed in 2008 that compares with 76,000 at the height of the 1991 recession, but just 19,600 last year.

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