ARLA’s David Cox says number of tenants facing rent rises is beginning to increase once more as landlords seek to offset extra costs.
The Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) says the private rental market is ‘holding steady’ but warns there is trouble ahead for tenants as landlords increase their rents to pay for the increased costs created by the recent extra legislative changes.
This includes the recent increases in tax relief, the new minimum energy efficiency standards that kicked in on April 1st and also the looming tenant fees ban.
The proportion of rental properties managed by agents which saw their rents rise increased to 23% during March, the highest since September 2017 but still lower year-on-year when compared to the past three years.
Both the number of rental homes managed by agents, and the number of tenants applying to rent properties increased per branch during March, by 2.5% and 8% respectively.
This is continuing to push up rents, which HomeLet says increased by 0.9% on average across the UK, and 1.5% in London, and rose in ten out of the UK’s 12 regions.
“For the last two decades, successive Governments have passed significant amounts of complex legislation for landlords, none of which have been properly policed or adequately enforced – but most of which cost decent landlords a lot of money,” says ARLA Propertymark Chief Executive David Cox (pictured, above).
“This is why we’re so supportive of the Government’s proposals to crack down on rogue agents, and more recently, plans to confiscate properties from criminal landlords.
“The announcements mark a sensible shift towards focusing on the root cause of the issues affecting the sector, rather than trying to find solutions to individual problems.
“This, coupled with greater rental stock is the key to fixing Britain’s broken rental sector.”
