Residential landlords in London feel the pinch…

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Tenants were stuck in situ during lock-down until the ban on moving was lifted on the 13^th of May, many are still reluctant to make any changes until they know what their job situation is going to be, while some are moving out – the so called “second wave” is now prolonging the uncertainty.

Landlords, fearing they may lose tenants, and being unable to fill the vacancies, have become more flexible with lease renewals, most willing to extend a tenant’s stay on a reduced rent. According to a report out in the summer by Chestertons, one of London’s largest estate and letting agencies, landlords were experiencing month on month falls as around 30% more vacancies were on the market.

Chesterton’s highlighted the main reasons for the drop off in demand as:

• The overseas student market – demand fell of a cliff as many overseas failed to take up new courses in October.
• There have been far fewer corporate relocations as companies have encouraged homeworking and put a block on recruitment.
• Existing tenants are delaying committing to new leases as they either consider cheaper accommodation with rents falling, or they look further afield, outside of London.
• Some tenants are successfully renegotiating lower rents while they wait and see, avoiding the hassle and cost associated with moving.

Since the summer there has been a definite trend for inner London tenants to look for more spacious accommodation, accelerated by the pandemic and homeworking. Of those that have made a move outside of the city, over 60 per cent have moved to somewhere bigger. Typically they will be moving to somewhere that’s cheaper and more suitable for home working, leaving more vacant rentals in the city.

Whilst previously the trend to move out to suburbia had been mostly dominated by “early nesters”, couples who plan to start a family, more recently younger tenants too have started to make the move out – there’s definitely an increased appetite for more indoor work space, and more space outdoors as well.

All of this has created a supply / demand imbalance such that inner London landlords are having to substantially discount their properties, some by as much as 10-15% in order to maintain tenant occupation, or risk facing a lengthy void period with no rental income.

The outlook is likely to be leaner times in the short-term, but according to Chestertons, rent levels should to some extent be cushioned by the shortage of properties available to rent in other locations across the country. It is estimated that average UK rents may fall by 5%-7% for 2020 and are likely to remain flat next year, though the uncertainty of the “second wave”, and the prospect of a quite severe recession, adds to the uncertainty.

Earlier in the year Chesterton’s forecast was that, as the proportion of people’s incomes spent on rent is higher in Greater London, rents would likely fall by 10% to 12% and by 13% to 15% in inner London, in 2020. Their forecast for 2021 was a fall of 4%-6% and 2% to 4% respectively, though the current upsurge in Coronavirus could easily mean the these figures being revised upwards.

It is thought however that any fall will be cushioned again by the fact that some landlords, given these tough trading conditions, will sell up, reducing the supply of properties to let. And although there are still likely to be more vacancies in central London, it is thought that rents will recover quickly if there is a rapid economic recovery and when workers start to move back to their offices.

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Samuel Leeds kicks off another video attacking critic despite police warning in January

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Self-styled property guru Samuel Leeds is once again on our radar after restarting his campaign against Property Tribes community manager, Vanessa Warwick.

Leeds published a video on his YouTube channel on Friday seeking to discredit her and accusing her of “fraud” and “spreading hate”.

As many landlords will be aware, Vanessa and Property Tribes have been targeted by Leeds and his supporters in the past, largely because many of its forums include less than flattering but substantiated commentary about his courses and sales techniques.

This came to a head in May last year when Property Tribes co-founder Vanessa Warwick was the victim of an on-line malicious communications and harassment campaign using fake profiles, which resulted in a seven-month investigation by Surrey Police.

This activity, which included the placement of an advert for Vanessa as a sex worker on Gumtree with her name and phone number, went on for two months along with emails of a threatening nature sent to her husband, Nick, demanding that threads must be deleted.

Vanessa tells LandlordZONE that, when he refused to delete the threads, the activity ramped up.

This ran for two months and included the creation of four websites against Vanessa which were taken down one by one with the assistance of the police.  

Police investigation

After an exhaustive police investigation into the malicious activity, including use of the police cybercrime lab to trace the digital footprints, it was found that all roads led to Samuel Leeds’ home address.  

Leeds was interviewed under caution at Guildford police station in January this year. 

Despite this, Leeds has not been put off. His new video accuses her of hiding several aspects of her career and business dealings and of setting out to put people off investing in property in the style promoted by his academy – i.e. with little experience or money.

These have all been strongly rebutted by Warwick, including that she is a jealous of Samuel’s success, that she has hidden her ‘back story”, that she doesn’t own any investment property, and that threads critical of Leeds are deliberately started by her on Property Tribes.

Warwick says she has now reported Leeds to the police for the second time for harassment and recording telephone calls the two had without telling her.

“The first phone call published was an excerpt of the conversation when Nick and I rang Samuel Leeds in May 2019 to let him know about the campaign and to ask for his assistance to shut it down, as we did not believe he would want his brand associated with such malicious activity.  

“If Leeds had played the entire phone call, you would have heard how he said: “I’m actually quite happy with what’s being said about you so you should just delete the threads if you want it to stop.”

Out of the blue

The second phone call published was from July 2020, over a year later, when Samuel called her out of the blue.  

“Naturally, I hung up on him. I have no desire to speak to someone who harassed me for two months, put an advert for me as a sex worker on Gumtree, and also created a TrustPilot site in my name to post fake reviews for me as a sex worker,” she says.

“Samuel has used this to spin the narrative that I used the police to bully him at the start of the campaign but, in reality, I reported the malicious activity to the police, not Samuel Leeds, and there was a seven month police investigation before he was identified as the perpetrator and interviewed under caution.

“Samuel used my refusal to speak to him on the July phone call as an act of cowardice when in fact I am the victim of a serious crime and naturally have no wish to speak to the perpetrator.

“That he would think I would ever wish to speak to him after what he has done and continues to do is quite beyond me”.

Call recorded

Recording and publishing private phone calls can be a criminal offence and may form part of the new investigation by Surrey Police.  It also has serious GDPR implications.

“Anyone who wants to cut to the chase and get to the heart of this matter only needs to understand that Leeds wants the threads about him deleted off Property Tribes as they rank very high on Google organic search results.  

“As they are all substantiated, he cannot use legal means, and therefore he resorted to alternative methods which failed the first time around.”

Read Vanessa’s rebuttal of Leeds’ video on Property Tribes where she has provided screen-shotted evidence of the entire campaign.

Read her rebuttal of Leeds’ video on PropertyTribes.

Samuel Leeds has been contacted by LandlordZONE via his Property Investment academy for comment.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – Samuel Leeds kicks off another video attacking critic despite police warning in January | LandlordZONE.

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‘Rent cap’ legislation scrutiny re-starts in Scotland, but will Bill ever become law?

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The Scottish Government wants landlords’ views on the ‘rent cap’ Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill but warns it might miss the deadline before the next election to become law.

The local government and communities committee at Holyrood (pictured) has opened its consultation on the bill which would cap rent rises at 1% above inflation and give renters protection against excessive or unfair rent increases.

Private landlords would also be made to enter the monthly rent and other detailed information into the Scottish Landlord Register.

Scottish Labour MSP Pauline McNeill launched the bill in June which was halted from going through the Scottish Parliament by the committee in August, blaming its failure on a heavy workload.

It’s now seeking views by 7th December with a view to deciding on the next steps early next year. However, it warns that because of its workload there may not be enough time to finish work on the bill before the May election.

Committee convener James Dornan MSP says the bill aims to move the balance of power further towards tenants.

He adds: “We are keen to hear views about whether this further change is necessary and whether the provisions are workable and will have the intended impact. We also want to find out what the financial impact would be upon private tenants, landlords, the wider rented sector and others.”

The Scottish Association of Landlords believes the proposals could lead to higher and more frequent rent increases as well as a shortage in the supply of homes.

It fears the bill would act as a disincentive to landlords considering reducing the rent below the open market level in order to attract new tenants or help existing tenants who are in financial difficulty.

Chief executive John Blackwood tells LandlordZONE: “Our focus has always been the lack of rental data – you can’t regulate for something until you know what the position on it is.”

Read our previous story about the Fair Rents bill.
Read more about rent controls.

©1999 – Present | Parkmatic Publications Ltd. All rights reserved | LandlordZONE® – ‘Rent cap’ legislation scrutiny re-starts in Scotland, but will Bill ever become law? | LandlordZONE.

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Are landlords falling out of love with letting agents?

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Nearly 60% of landlords say they are less likely to use a letting agent during the next 12 months, a major industry poll of industry opinion has revealed.

Some 2,500 were quizzed by LandlordZONE sister company Hamilton Fraser, revealing that half don’t use an agent at all, a quarter use one to fully manage their tenancies and 15% used agents just to ‘find a tenant’ before then managing the tenancy themselves.

But 57% said they are less likely to use an agent in the coming 12 months with 27% undecided.

Sean Hooker, CEO of Hamilton Fraser, reckons the extra costs and additional taxes faced by many landlords in recently are driving more of them to use online self-management platforms such as Howsy and Rentr to run properties and tenancies.

“Like many industries there is an increasing shift to online trading and information more available now than ever before,” he says.

“Letting platforms with fixed fees and self-selecting services are more commonplace now than say, five years ago.  They have matured and are far more transparent than ever.

“Traditional high street lettings unfortunately are suffering from increasing costs which must be passed onto someone which in most cases is the landlord.

“Sites such as LandlordZONE provide detailed guidance and education in many cases, far more so than that which can be obtained from physical agents.”

Hamilton Fraser is parent company to Total Landlord Insurance, mydeposits, the Property Redress Scheme, Client Money Protect and Landlord Action.

Read advice on how to choose a letting agent.

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Turnaround in BTL broker confidence compared to last year

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Just under half of mortgage intermediaries expect to write more buy-to-let business in the next 12 months, according to Paragon Bank’s Financial Adviser Confidence Tracker (FACT) Index.

The index developed quarterly by the specialist lender, is evidence of the market’s current strength.

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Tenants now prefer a text?

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Using text messages to remind tenants when rent is due and chase late payments provides a range of benefits, according to PayProp who say communicating via text not only saves time and resources, but also meets the needs of modern tenants

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