Tenants could get rent cash back under Government crackdown on bad landlords
Renters could soon get rent back from their landlord if they are made to live in shoddy accomodation. This is under a Government plan to crack down on bad landlords. If the plans are brought in, tenants can sue their landlords for rent refunds if they are living in poorly maintained properties. The idea comes from […]
Unregulated rental sector condemned as “a complete mess” by MPs
The current system of so-called ‘exempt rental accommodation’ has been condemned by MPs as “a complete mess” which wastes taxpayers’ money and fails many residents. Exempt accommodation is the name given to a type of supported rental housing that is used to house a range of people with support needs – typical residents are the […]
Rents soar ahead of frozen benefits, triggering homelessness fear
The average gap between housing benefit rates and the actual cost of rents has grown by more than 40 per cent in the last five months, it’s been claimed. Research from the homelessness charity Crisis and the property portal Zoopla claims that just 11 per cent of one-bedroom properties in England are now affordable on […]
Government urged to give BTL landlords stamp duty ‘exemption’ to boost rental supply
The government needs to do more to encourage people to invest in the buy-to-let sector in order to boost much-needed housing supply. Rents are rising sharply across much of the country as demand from tenants continues to heavily outweigh supply, and the government is being encouraged to take action now to reverse the trend by […]
Down They Go – House prices to drop to mid-2021 levels says agency
Knight Frank says it expects house prices to drop in the coming year – but only to those levels seen in mid-2021. Tom Bill, head of residential research at the agency says: “We expect UK prices to revert to where they were in the summer of 2021, however low levels of unemployment and well-capitalised banks […]
Landlord says he has to hike tenants’ rent or sell his property under new council rules
A landlord says he will have to either hike his tenants’ rent or sell his property because he cannot afford the cost of a new council scheme. The dad-of-four needs to pay a £1,090 fee to register his home with Leicester City Council ‘s landlord licensing programme. Under the scheme, the authority plans to crack down on rogue landlords […]
Number of buy-to-let ‘limited companies’ passes 300,000 for first time
The total number of companies set up by landlords to hold buy-to-let property has doubled since 2017 and now stands at over 300,000, research from reveals. This means that the total number of buy-to-let orientated companies has doubled over the last five years since 2017. The increase has been driven by new buy-to-let purchases being made in a […]
Offering certainty to an uncertain PRS
The UK private rental sector is facing growing uncertainty. The number of landlords offering properties had already dropped considerably when the government imposed the Tenant Fees Act in 2019, and now, following the pandemic and amidst the current cost-of-living crisis, we are on the verge of a rental crisis. The average lettings agent has just 11 properties available to […]
Rising interest rates see 90% of landlords increasing rent
According to the results of a new survey by SME and landlord insurance provider, Superscript, nine in ten landlords who responded have either already increased rents, or intend to increase rents, due to the Bank of England interest rate rise. The survey of 600 UK residential landlords showed that 50% of respondents already increased rents […]
‘I’m out now, I’m selling’ – landlords exit PRS, warns portal chief
Landlords are being driven out of the rental market and nothing is being done to help them, a leading property figure told The Neg. Adam Pigott, CEO of challenger portal OpenBrix, claims landlords are saying “I’m out now, I’m selling.” He says there is a government policy to “target landlords”, and “nothing is working for them […]