76% of councils report an increase in landlords selling up and warn of increased waiting lists

No s**t Sherlock.
Do you think excessive regulation, licencing, punitive fines, penal taxation, with more jn the pipeline might have something to do with it?
Chickens are coming home roost.

Well who’d have seen this coming? Certainly not George Osborne. The Conservatives were once the party of enterprise. They’re a complete shambles!

This really does not surprise me and I am quite amazed that the government and councils didn’t see this coming. And this article seems to have missed one of the other major factors.

They are continuing to pile on more and more regulation, higher fines etc and then removing the ability to claim interest as an allowable expense. As one of the southwest larger private landlords with interest payments of over £48K a year, this was the final straw that made me decide enough was enough. How can any valid expense of £48k just be ignored. I still have to pay it!

Yes I could look at all sorts of ways, using companies etc but this does not change the fact that the PRS is on the governments radar as an easy target to get money , be it from tax changes, licensing or whatever comes next.

Over the last five years since the introduction of the S24 rules, I have sold 26 properties so far and have offers on a number of others and will continue for another year or so until they are all gone. This has removed a large number of family homes from the rental market as all were average 2 or 3 bed family homes.

And from talking with other landlords, I am certainly not alone in this thinking. I will no doubt continue in the property arena, buying, renovation and maybe even looking at AirB&B properties.

But my days as a landlord are coming to an end!

Reply to the comment left by Gromit at 13/12/2021 - 11:17
Don't forget the pending EPC changes! Oh - and a likely return awaits to the old days when possession could not be obtained in a reasonable timeframe, which killed off the PRS. It only recovered when ASTs were introduced and possession became achievable in defined circumstances - such as non payment of rent.
Government has a short memory.

The playing field between LL and tenant is far from level, to the extent that it is now precipitous for a landlord, with minor infractions (whether or not accidental or having an impact on a tenant) or when having the tenant from hell will deliver serious stress and life changing financial consequences. Why bother taking that risk any more?

A quiet tenant-free life is increasingly attractive...

This is solely a consequence of poorly designed government policy. I have stopped adding single let properties into my portfolio as the net margins are now significantly lower than other capital investment opportunities and with a bouyant market for selling residential properties I can understand why many landlords are selling, most likely to owner-occupiers. The segment most affected by this trend are lower income. Typically not able to save for a deposit and get a mortgage and having to operate in a rental market where the gap between demand and supply continues to grow. The key question is how far does this situation degrade into a crisis before the government realise that their policies achieve the complete opposite of the desired outcome for people that either prefer to or have to rent.

Why couldn't their report have just been honest, stating the real facts as to why landlords are leaving the market, rather than the "due to the impact of the pandemic" B S! Now beginning the same process as you Mark T, not something I wanted to do, but had enough!

I don't know why we keep saying it, obvious to some of us.
And as I read prior comments, we all say the same.
They got a few years £'s out us with Section 24 & Licensing & Council Tax empty properties etc. But boy what a maths calamity, costing them a lot more now. Never mind the human cost on Benefit tenants.

Yes please build more council houses, but in the mean time, as Ian Narbeth says:

They have succeeded in driving private landlords out. Now they see the results of their actions.
They should be listening to these words we'd like to say to Govt, Councils, Shelter, Generation rent etc.
"How can you ensure the people who provide desperately-needed accommodation get paid so that they continue to house those who would otherwise be homeless?"

If u wish me to stop quoting this, please say Ian. But great very true words.

You cannot force a property owner to rent a property. Even if they exit altogether, even going as far as to sell to a tenant, that is both a finite number of properties (and therefore nowhere left to place blame as the problem of housing shortages continues) and a less mobile workforce.

It is no doubt good to have different views.
Did you read the article below this one?
BTL activity up 83%.
I never trust statistics.
So which is it or both?
76% down and 83% up?

Reply to the comment left by Suresh Parikh at 13/12/2021 - 12:26
Both could be correct, 75% of LA's seeing Landlords Selling AND loans for BTL up by 83%.
You cannot compare the two figure for they relate to entirly different activities, the first to reduced property and the second to borrowing money.