0:02 AM, 8th November 2024, About a month ago 14
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The Renters’ Rights Bill will push landlords out of the sector and into short-term holiday lets, warn MPs.
During a Renters’ Rights Bill Committee meeting, some MPs expressed concerns about the bill’s potential impact on the private rented sector.
However, Matthew Pennycook, the Housing Minister, claimed, “there is no evidence of a landlord exodus.”
The Renters’ Rights Bill will immediately ban Section 21 and apply Awaab’s law to the private rented sector.
Gideon Amos, the Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, highlighted evidence suggesting that landlords may switch towards short-term holiday lets in response to the Renters’ Rights Bill.
He said: “Landlord groups such as the National Residential Landlords Association and Dexters letting agency have argued that the Bill risks pushing landlords out of the sector and into short-term holiday lets.
“The NRLA estimates a 1% to 2% drop in rental stock. There is agreement on the topic across the sector, and there is a plausible worry that without any additional controls there will be a leeching of stock into more short-term holiday lets.
“For locations that particularly suffer from that phenomenon, the consequences could be the closure of businesses and services locally.”
However, Mr Pennycook dismissed the idea of landlords leaving the sector claiming “good landlords have nothing to fear”.
He said: “It is important to state that this government value the contribution made by responsible landlords who provide quality homes to their tenants, and believe they must enjoy robust grounds for possession where there is good reason to take their property back.
“As such, good landlords have nothing to fear from our reforms and should be in no rush to change legitimate business models, as I have said repeatedly.
“The private rented sector has doubled in size since the early 2000s. There is no evidence of an exodus since reform was put on the table by the previous government. Our proposals will ensure that landlords have the confidence and support they need to continue to invest and operate in the sector.”
Mr Pennycook’s comments come despite mounting evidence that landlords are leaving the sector.
The Guild of Property Professionals argues that the Renters’ Rights Bill will spark “an exodus,” while the NRLA warns that landlords are now more likely to sell than buy.
Elsewhere during the Committee meeting, co-leader of the Green Party, Carla Denyer, argued the Renters’ Rights Bill must introduce rent controls.
She told the meeting: “I encourage the government and the Committee to look to European countries where rent caps co-exist with large private rented sectors, such as in Germany, where more than half the population rents privately and where they also have in-tenancy rent caps.
“The argument against rent controls is that they will break the private rented sector, but it is already broken, with immediate and severe consequences right now, for all the reasons we heard about in the evidence sessions.
“However, we need to talk about the risks attached to any policy of in-tenancy and between-tenancy rent controls. Any system to introduce them needs to be carefully designed and built.”
Mr Pennycook told Ms Denyer the government that introducing rent controls “could have a detrimental impact on tenants and cause supply issues”.
He added that the Renters’ Rights Bill strikes the right balance, emphasising that “this legislation is just one of several steps we’re taking to address affordability pressures in the private rented sector.”
Rod
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Sign Up19:12 PM, 10th November 2024, About a month ago
Reply to the comment left by TheMaluka at 08/11/2024 - 21:47
Hi The Maluka
Thanks for giving iHowz a mention.
https://ihowz.uk/
The team at iHowz have been actively campaigning and lobbying MPs and Lords on the RRB and other PRS issues.
The minister's comment that the PRS doubled is correct, but does not go on to say since S24 was introduced that it has shrunk back from almost 20% to nearer 17% (that's 15% of the private rental market). He was also a little parsimonious regarding good landlords - he should have said something along the lines that "good landlords, with good tenants and local authorities who do not bring in unnecessary licencing have nothing to fear".
It is difficult to understand how raising SDLT ahile freezing LHA rates will encourage PRS landlords to expand their portfolios, especially to house those on low incomes or benefits.
Talk of landlords pivoting their portfolios to furnished holiday and serviced lets may have been relevant a couple of years ago, but RR confirmed Jeremy Hunt's decision to level down by withdrawing the more favourable FHL tax treatment from April 2025. Yes, no more capital allowance, no full finance cost offset, and no BADS CGT relief when you decide to cash in. The final indignity is that their income will no longer qualify for pension relief, despite having become extra hard working landlords.
We have been investing in Britain for years with no recognition, while the risk reward ratio has steady been stacked against us.
We want to be able to to build our portfolios, improve the homes we rent and keep them properly repaired and maintained, but to do this we need to make a reasonable return and know that we can recover our properties in a timely manner when things don't go according to plan.
Instead, we are taxed by central government then subject to spurious licencing regimes buy councils who often are incapable of meeting the same standards (quality and timeliness).
Is it any wonder that even committed landlords wonder if the only vote they have is their fear as they seek a fair return on their time and capital investment?
Why not take a look at what iHowz are doing and join in?
https://ihowz.uk/
Disgrunteld Landlady
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Sign Up5:23 AM, 18th November 2024, About a month ago
I've done the STL including having fired a spotty faced con-artist who is trying to close his company as too many are suing him no doubt. Got to file more evidence as HMRC is not capable of reading the date on the document I attached. Be careful with STL I keep very detailed numbers and I am saying what many others have said.. numbers don't stack up - you are much better off with HMO's. The costs are simply too high and you have to put up with a lot of nasty comments and scammers.
Andrew McCausland
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Sign Up10:58 AM, 26th November 2024, About 4 weeks ago
Matthew Pennycook, you are wrong. Landlords are leaving the sector, myself included.
The impact assessment of the RRA is a fine example of what the military call "situating the appreciation rather than appreciating the situation". There are some good points in the impact assessment but too many preconceived politically motivated issues obscure the benefits. This was not drawn up with an open mind, rather to reinforce and "prove" a particular point of view.
Personally, I don't have an issue with the loss of S21, but only if the courts system is reorganised to cope with deluge of claims that will follow. Digitising the process is long overdue, but we have yet to see the details of what this means in practice, how long it will take to implement, and the funds available to progress this. My fear is that the answer will be years, and none.
A few years ago I worked with Frank Field, then Chair of the Commons select committee on work and pensions, on issues around homelessness and social exclusion. The results were pretty clear, and what we termed the "hard to house" group were ones we wanted to target interventions towards. For a number of reasons, a large percentage of this group gravitated towards the PRS as their last option before homelessness.
As a result of this legislation landlords will now need to be much more selective on who they rent to to try and protect themselves. This means the hard to house group will be even less likely to get into the PRS, leaving them to fall back on council and HA lists, places they have often already been excluded from. Inevitably will lead to higher emergency housing costs and increased homelessness.
Without a workable system in place BEFORE this is enacted then more and more landlords will simply give up and exit the industry. The houses will still be there, with some remaining for rent and others bought by owner occupiers.
What won't be there is the funding to repair them to the standards previously achieved. Also missing will be the army of "non-working landlords" who invest their time and money bringing very poor properties back onto the market.
In my 30+ years as an investor and developer I have renovated over 100 properties - ones that were often uninhabitable. Will I be doing more? No, I am selling up and exiting the PRS within the next 3 years.
I considered myself to be a good landlord. All my properties achieved a 5* rating from our local councils. I, like many others, am leaving the business now due to increased costs, decreased profitability and greatly increased danger of substantial losses if I can't reclaim a property in a timely manner.
I had a good run over the years, helped many families into good housing and made a lot of friends doing so. Yes, I made some money along the way but nowhere near what I could have made if I had screwed the tenants for everything I could. In other words, I was a typical landlord.
For those remaining in the business - goodbye and good luck.
Mr Blueberry
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Sign Up12:39 PM, 26th November 2024, About 4 weeks ago
You raised many points that most Landlords would concur with.
As with the pension debacle and Farmers IHT nightmare on succession there has been little impact assessment on worst case senerios. It smacks of a lot of political Think Tank reports but very little practical gum boot walking, talking to the aged and respect to the millions of good landlords.
The number of disgruntled voters is mounting, in a short period of time,
to an unprecedented percentage of the country. We are heading toward an adverse reaction that might even surprise the Conservatives.