A trend which started in the US, whereby individual investors with single properties or small portfolios are being supplanted as landlords by global companies, pension funds or big family offices, has come to the UK.
The shift has been fuelled by populations moving into cities. In the US, the rate of urban population growth outpaced the suburbs in 2011 for the first time in nearly a century.
This has pushed up house prices to the point where they are unaffordable for many, creating ballooning demand for rented homes. At the same time, professional investors are hunting for assets that can generate steady incomes over many decades.
