Can landlords afford a rent freeze in the UK?

If they mandate rent freeze and rent cap then surely the Government can do the same with Supermarkets and energy companies and freeze food prices and energy, no difference really. Their profits are far higher so they can defiantly afford it and levels the field for all. Simples

Brilliant summary of the issues. I'm one of the small landlords, with 2 buy to let's, both mortgaged, all with the same provider, TMW. All 3 mortgages have increased, my residential by £600 a month (and counting..if base rate goes up again it will increase further). I feel like; being hammered. So I've decided to sell the little studio in London, in order to get out before S21 disappears and rent control comes into play. I'll be displacing a young woman who's been living in the property for 3 years who works locally and is perfectly happy there.

The question that nobody seems to be really quantifying except for landlords (but nobody hears us) is 'just exactly how is all this benefiting tenants?'

Excellent piece. The mad hatters party comes to mind.

Reply to the comment left by Alex Pawlowksi at 10/03/2023 - 12:23
COST OF 'RENTING' CRISIS narrative has not become main stream in the media YET but it will especially as we get closer to next years election.

The dividing lines will be S. Khan's/ Labour policy RENT FREEZE for > 1,2,3 years?? It will sound like populist music to tenants ears and their voting power.

OR

RENT CAPs policy which I predict the Conservatives will adopt over the coming year so allow some LLs to increase rent (3%??) (with several conditions from RRB attached e.g. like bring their homes to decent standard/ EPC C rating?).

Of course there needs to some parity with social LLs and their rent caps to be fair but it will easily be double PRS.

Either way something is definitely on it way as LL Crusader has that foresight.

I have never ever used S21 at all in 25 years as a LL but I will have to use it before it goes. As it will allow me to put a new bathroom or kitchen and then remarket to significantly increase my baseline rent PRIOR to election results so if a FREEZE or CAP is on the way within 100 days of any government taking power I have soft landing cushion available to deal with the next volatile 5 years.

There was a post on P118 a while ago where someone was advocating a S21 'day' for ALL PRS LLs (Send make a point to government instead of petitions). There was lot of negative response to this TACTIC! However again reading LL Crusaders article again make me think whilst there will not be synchronized S21 day it will certainly be a s21 'year' i.e. 2024.

As you have to remember even if the RRB gets brought into parliament before Easter (a prediction) it will still take time to get on the statute book.

Labour will use the massive rise in S21 in 2024 vs 2023 as part of their policy fire power for their hard line PRS populist approach!

This sums things up nicely. You would hope that the powers that be look at property 118 and the other on-line publications to realise the situation landlords are facing. They probably do, but choose to turn a blind eye. Maybe it’s a race memory dating back to Victorian times with overcrowded rented slums, cholera, rickets and tenants being tossed out on a whim.The myth still abounds that landlords are rich and heartless living high on the misery of their tenants. Landlords are not seen as they should be, proving a service the Government and local authorities can’t do, namely providing a decent roof over people’s heads. Meanwhile, the Government uses the myth as a smokescreen hiding the fact that their own policies force more and more voters into renting. They exploit the myth so they can be seen as a sort of modern day Robin Hood “stealing from the rich (landlords) and giving to the poor (tenants).
Basically the Tories have stolen the Labour party’s clothes with the proposed renter’s reform bill. The Tories have said that they do not intend to bring in rent controls. Assuming this is true (have they ever lied to us?), the only clear water that Labour will have between themselves and the Tories is rent controls as pretty much everything else is being done to landlords anyway. Lack of supply has really pushed rents up. How many landlords are charging below market rates? Time to “hike” them using the typical journalistic jargon?

The Lanlord Crusader is spot on, an excellent article. Iv been a private landlord for 25 years with 5 properties which took me 10 years to build up. They are mortgaged and iv been working since I was 16 years old and still nearly 50 still work nearly 60hrs a week. My properties are always in good condition with no complaints and if something breaks its repaired quickly or replaced for new. This year I'm selling it all and tenants don't want to move but I'm basically working overtime just to keep them in the property. So 5 families looking for somewhere else to live. Just thank Scottish government i tell them.

The reality is that after the demise of S21, more people will be deemed to have made themselves homeless and councils will have no responsibility to rehouse them as landlords will default to S8. So where will they go? A reduced number of private landlords will not be interested in taking a rent defaulter. So the kids and one parent end up in hotels, BnB etc and the other parent becomes estranged from their family.
Are we as a society just pushing a snowball down a hill that gets bigger further down the hill?

One of the biggest issues is public perception and you are fighting against so much to improve three look of landlord in the public eyes.

The vast majority of landlords are providing homes at reasonable prices and there is no issue. The problem is that there is nothing newsworthy about things being exactly as they should be. It's only the actions that are different to the norm that are noteworthy. News like that is not mentally appealing to humans. Seeming something saying things are working as they should just leads to a thought of "well of course it should be" and pay it no further attention.

So what the public gets to see is what others are choosing to make publications available. This has become a problem due to social media and the grift nature you find there. You have hundreds and thousands of content creators making videos saying how you can make stupid amounts of money by renting property at the maximum possible rent. That you can earn all this money for no work each month.

It's rare you will see the full truth from one of these creators, it does happen but as above, because it's someone describing the normal way of things, it's boring to the viewer.

So it feels as if the idea that landlords can afford it may stem a bit from this.

You have the public who have been exposed to videos like this. They have seen house prices rise out of their affordability making them think that landlords will have that extra money from the asset price increase. It would be an extremely hard sell to convince them that landlords cannot afford it with little evidence to the contrary.

I know the truth of it, but that's only because I read websites such as this and go hunting for the actual data. It's trying to convince everyone else of this.

Then you get to the issue of kneejerk reactions. Again, I know why you would want to issue S21s and sell up, but to everyone else is going to look retaliatory; that you are taking it out on tenants because you are greedy.

I suspect that only overt generosity that the media is happy to publish will be the thing to sway public opinion. I cannot see many being in the position, or willing, to do that.

Reply to the comment left by The Forever Tenant at 11/03/2023 - 08:33
Many landlords did exactly that during Covid, by giving rent reductions to tenants, whilst we didn’t qualify for a penny of grant money or furlough cash, so it was a net loss to us.

However, I don’t recall that gesture ever being acknowledged or appreciated. I do recall the conversations about the so-called mortgage holidays though.

I think that the anti landlord sentiment is now so pervasive and ingrained that there is nothing we can do to establish or redeem a good reputation - there needs to be a receptive ear for that, and there isn’t one.

Many landlords, including me, are so tired of the constant struggle and negativity that we can’t be bothered to stay in the game. Well done government - in trying to get a political soundbite and grab the odd vote here and there, you have decimated the PRS and made things far worse for landlords and tenants alike.