Landlords for homelessness charity to compete with Shelter and Crisis?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Well, that got your attention didn’t it!

But is it such a crazy idea? What if landlords got together and started a charity that helped the same people that Shelter and Crisis claim to. Fundraise the same way

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Scots rent and evictions freeze prompts ‘staggering’ landlord exit response

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A staggering 85% of letting agents in Scotland report that landlords want to sell up following the government’s move to ban evictions and rent increases until next April.

Propertymark members in Scotland say that even more worryingly, 68% of agents had already seen an increase in notices to sell due to the emergency Cost of Living (Tenant Protection) (Scotland) Act – and that the legislation had actually had the reverse effect.

While many landlords had not increased rents in the last year, 83% would now be inclined to do so because of the Act.

They want reassurance that they could cover any rental loss as well as the rising cost of maintenance and repairs, utilities and mortgage interest hikes.

One agent explains: “Many landlords who have not increased rent and had properties below market value for years are now considering this position and feeling they must raise [their property] to market rent from now on and keep up with annual increases, whereby before they had not considered it.”

Timothy Douglas (pictured), Propertymark head of policy and campaigns, says the measures are disproportionate to the scale of the problem and have only driven more landlords out of the sector.

He adds: “Alarmingly, the temporary nature of the legislation means that the impact is not fully realised yet but if the changes are extended then there will be greater consequences.

“The private rented sector is a key solution to resolve the housing crisis but if the Scottish Government continue with policies that disincentive landlords this will only make the situation worse.”

Scottish Ministers must report and review every three months on the need for the provisions to either be continued or end; the first report will be laid before the Scottish Parliament by 14th January.

Read more about the Scots freeze.

View Full Article: Scots rent and evictions freeze prompts ‘staggering’ landlord exit response

Property prices continue falling as buyers watch and wait

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A bigger seasonal dip than usual has seen property prices continue their slide with sellers dropping the price on a new listing by 2.1%, Rightmove reports.

That price fall equates to an average of £7,862 and is a bigger drop than is usually seen at this time of year.

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Rising margins tempting landlords back to BTL, says leading agency

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Buy-to-let investors look set to outnumber first-time buyers next year as rising rents tempt more landlords to pick up deals.

Hamptons Monthly Lettings Index reports that 12.2% of homes were bought by investors in 2022, the highest share since 2016 and up from 11.7% last year.

But sales remain below their 15.5% peak in 2015, the year before the 3% stamp duty surcharge was introduced.                       

The number of landlords registering in Hamptons’ branches is up 9% on last year as they seek out homes which have been lingering on the market. In November, 37% of offers by landlords were on homes without any competing offers, up from 14% in January. 

A less competitive market means that last month, just 25% of investor purchases were agreed above the asking price, compared to 30% among first-time buyers.

League table

Landlords’ slow re-emergence has been underpinned by investment in towns and cities towards the top of the yield league table, according to Hamptons.

So far this year 56% of new investor purchases have been in places with average yields of 6% and above, up from 40% a decade ago. 

Hartlepool offered new investors the highest average gross yield (9.9%) in England and Wales for the second year running. Meanwhile, 85% of homes sold by investors were generating a yield of below 6%.

Aneisha Beveridge (pictured), head of research at Hamptons, says that while house price growth is slowing, rental growth continues to strengthen, offsetting some, but not all, of landlord’s increased costs. 

She adds: “It’s these rising costs which are likely to mean rental growth will remain high for the next few years. In Scotland, where landlords are capped in their ability to pass on higher costs to sitting tenants, rents on newly let properties will likely continue topping the growth charts. 

“When a tenant leaves and a home is re-advertised, the jump back up to market rate is much larger.”

Read the index in full.

View Full Article: Rising margins tempting landlords back to BTL, says leading agency

Scotland set to see exodus of landlords

admin    Uncategorized     agents

Letting agents in Scotland say that 85% of their landlord clients are planning to leave the private rented sector (PRS) after emergency measures introduced by the Scottish Government brought in a rent freeze and a ban on evictions.

The claim is made by Propertymark who point to agents saying that fed-up landlords have told them they are planning to sell up.

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Rental stock shortage to give rogue landlords ‘free rein’ warns buy-to-let firm

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Landlords’ increasing power and a dearth of rental homes is likely to give rogue operators free rein, according to a snap poll by GetGround.

Half of those quizzed have seen an increase in demand for their properties in the last year, prompting more than two-thirds (69%) to believe that the balance of power has shifted in their favour, while 81% reckon a lack of housing threatens to allow disreputable landlords to harm the rental market.   

GetGround reports that 57% of landlords say tenants are willing to pay higher rents to secure tenancies, accept higher bills for utilities (55%) and accept unplanned rent increases (69%).

Only one in eight (13%) think tenants are expecting or demanding more from their landlords.

CEO Moubin Faizullah Khan (pictured) says: “With recent history as our guide, it’s easy to imagine how the private rental sector could be brought into disrepute by bad actors: disproportionately high rents, unexpected bill increases, unfairly terminated tenancies and so on.

“Landlords and tenants alike need the right protections and safeguards to ensure none of this poor behaviour is able to happen, particularly as high mortgage and energy costs continue to put even more pressure on landlords to find means to stay solvent.”  

Perfect storm

NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle (pictured) believes the poll data highlights the arrival of a perfect storm, combining the increased cost of living with rising rents.

“That rents continue to rise is due to the impact of a lack of supply and record demand in the private rented sector,” he adds.

“It’s time for the government to reverse this failed approach by reversing mortgage interest tax changes, abolishing the 3% stamp duty land tax surcharge, investing in social housing and unfreezing local housing allowance for renters.”

View Full Article: Rental stock shortage to give rogue landlords ‘free rein’ warns buy-to-let firm

INTERVIEW: The group helping hundreds of tenants pursue rent repayment orders

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Tenants are more likely to take their landlord to tribunal if they feel mistreated or their legal counsel is ill-informed or aggressive, according to Justice For Tenants, one of the main not-for-profit organisations helping tenants tackle bad landlords.

Once a landlord has been banged to rights by the council for an offence such as failing to do repairs or not having an HMO licence, tenants don’t necessarily want to haul them before a court, the non-profit’s local housing authority training and outreach lead, Al Mcclenahan (pictured), tells LandlordZONE.

“Tenants don’t usually want to bring a rent repayment order case unless they’ve been mistreated,” he says.

“Reasonable landlords will want to settle really quickly – they’ll make an offer, and we tell tenants what they could be awarded if it went to a tribunal, but the tenants will usually take the landlord’s offer because they’ve been treated reasonably.”

In 80–85% of cases, landlords will try and settle when Justice For Tenants is involved, and about 50% end up settling.

The outcome can also depend on how aggressive the landlord’s representative is, explains Mcclenahan, who adds that some haven’t even done a bar course and can exploit these landlords.

“If they make all sorts of claims about the tenant, a tenant will feel they’ve been treated unfairly and will want a hearing.”

Sometimes landlords won’t settle because they think the tenants are paying Justice For Tenants an hourly rate, so they’ll try and keep engaging to ‘spend them out’ (however, the group gets a flat fee of 30% of the award) or they don’t realise the case creates a public record, he says.

Enforcement toolkit

Justice For Tenants has recently created a tribunal enforcement toolkit for local councils which it will use to deliver training to 50 authorities.

Where councils haven’t taken any enforcement action for many years, rogue landlords know there’s little chance of them getting a penalty – but this initiative could result in a doubling in national enforcement actions over the next few years, predicts Mcclenahan.

“Our training is about making sure councils’ procedure is that a housing debt not paid will result in a charge against a landlord’s property which would ultimately mean the council could sell the property from underneath them if that debt reaches £20,000.”

Read more about rent repayment orders.

View Full Article: INTERVIEW: The group helping hundreds of tenants pursue rent repayment orders

Tenants ‘paying the price’ of Government’s assault on PRS, new figures show

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Rental unaffordability for single earners has hit a 10-year high, highlighting the need for more investment in the PRS to address the chronic imbalance between supply and demand.

Annual rental growth now stands at 12%, accounting for 35% of a single earner’s average income, according to Zoopla’s Rental Market Report.

The average monthly rent for a new letting is up £117 since last year, to £1,078, with rental stock down 38% compared to the five-year average and down 4% on last November.

Rental enquiries

Zoopla reveals that in stark comparison, rental enquiries per estate agency branch are 46% above the five-year average. 

Monthly rents are increasing fastest in the UK’s largest cities with large student populations; up 17% or £273 in London, Manchester (+15.6%), Birmingham (+12.3%), Glasgow (+14.1%), Bristol (+12.9%) and Sheffield (+12.4%).

As rental increases in tenancies are much lower at 3.8%, it’s prompting growing numbers of renters to stay put and avoid price rises, compounding supply problems.

Increase investment

Zoopla believes increasing investment in the PRS is the only way to ease the affordability pressures on renters in the medium term and to create a more sustainable rental market.

Executive director Richard Donnell (pictured) says renters are paying the price for low levels of new investment in private rented housing over the last six years. “Renters are having to adopt a range of strategies to deal with rising rents,” he explains.

“We have seen a rapid increase in demand for one and two-bed flats while some renters are now considering sharing a property to cover the cost of rent. Others may now need to stay at home with parents or relatives for longer until they can afford to rent privately.”

Adds Donnell: “In the short term, we expect the growing unaffordability of renting to reduce rental increases in 2023 to 5%.” 

Read more: Major landlords calls on Government to change direction on PRS.

View Full Article: Tenants ‘paying the price’ of Government’s assault on PRS, new figures show

Why should landlords deal with lies and damned statistics?

admin    Uncategorized     agents

It has been another interesting week in the life of a landlord in the UK – and none of it good.

My attention has been drawn to the use of statistics to prove that all landlords are bad –

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Only 3 for an HMO beware the sting in the tail?

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Hello, As of 9th December 2021 the Lambeth BC decided to reduce the number of unrelated people using shared facilities from 5 to 3 to class it as an HMO.

At that time we had 3 gents living in the flat under AST which commenced in September 2019 and became a rolling AST from September 2020.

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