AN ESTATE agent from Bournemouth says renting in the area is "really difficult" because there aren't enough properties to meet demand.

Estate agent Jonathon Thomas from Enfield Estate Agents in Bournemouth says his team let nearly 600 properties in Bournemouth last year but they always felt they had low amounts of stock.

He said: "Even though we did that amount of lets, we always felt we didn't have enough for the demand for rentals and this has been a continuous problem for a little while and it's difficult, in Bournemouth there just isn't enough rental properties to cope with the demand.

"For example, we put a property on the market in West Cliff last year just a bog standard two bedroom flat with parking, we received in a 24 hour period over 100 calls and viewing requests online for one rental property.

"That's a good problem for landlords but it makes it extremely difficult if you're a tenant looking to rent a property in Bournemouth.

"It would be great for the government to incentivise landlords to buy more properties to cope with that demand."

Speaking about the future for tenants in Bournemouth, he said: "It could get worse, over a long period of time it's just got increasingly busier for rental properties and I don't see it actually decreasing, certainly not this year.

"It's just a stock problem we just need to try and incentivise more buy to lets to come to the market, otherwise it's going to continue as it is."

Offering advice to renters in the area, he said some tenants are better off staying put: "You will find that most people living in a rental property are probably playing below market value for their rentals, given that the rental prices have gone up so high.

"So somebody living in a three bedroom family home in Bournemouth in some cases might actually be paying £200 less a month than what the landlord could get if they put the property on the market now.

"What happens is some landlords, where the tenant may have proved themself to be reliable, are more inclined to not feel comfortable pushing the rent up to scare the tenant away.

"So tenants in their current rental properties, most of them will find that they'll have to spend probably a lot more money on a monthly rental to get a similar type of property, so they're probably in some cases, better off staying where they are."