9:51 AM, 6th December 2023, About A year ago 89
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The Labour Party says it wants the UK to outlaw tenant bidding wars for rented homes, adopting a New Zealand policy, the Party’s Shadow Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, says.
Several Australian states have also apparently followed suit and Labour says the practice ‘creates a competition among tenants’ which only benefits the landlord.
Mr Pennycook says: “Those tenants who lose out on a property because of bidding wars are in a worse situation.
“And those who manage to get a property by that method are often stretched to the maximum of what they can pay.”
Labour now wants to amend the Renters (Reform) Bill that is working its way through Parliament.
And on 5 Live Breakfast, Nottingham landlord Mick Roberts was questioned by presenter Rachel Burden over the bidding practice, when she asked: “Do you get your tenants outbidding each other for your properties?”
Mr Roberts replied: “I do, and I’ve had that in the past, but I don’t get into it. But I can understand why other landlords are doing it.”
He was then asked why this situation is happening and Mr Roberts replied: “Well, you’ve got a shortage of landlords and since 2015 there’s been this anti-landlord rhetoric and the landlords are packing up like wildfire.
“And now you’ve got a supply and demand issue – and we never know what is coming next.”
He added: “For example, in Nottingham we’ve got a selective licensing charge of £900 and for some landlords, if they’re going to get to tenants bidding against each other, then they are going to take that bid.”
Along with the prospect of Labour banning tenants bidding for a rented property, Mr Roberts asked Ms Burden whether we should also ban bidding on the shopping site eBay and ban house sellers when bidding puts the price up.
Ms Burden asked: “Having somewhere to live is kind of a basic human right and need, isn’t it? And if people are being priced out of the market, this is really problematic.”
Mr Roberts replied: “I agree, but is it the landlord’s job to provide that basic human right?
“The landlord’s job is to provide a home – they are not a charity. It’s not the council providing that home, it’s not a housing association, it’s a human being. And he can take his money elsewhere.”
Ms Burden said that a landlord advertising a property at a certain price will know that the amount covers all the landlord’s costs and gives a buffer zone.
She then asked: “Then maybe there should be a system whereby you don’t allow people to come in and offer over that price.
“So, in other words, the landlord isn’t losing out. But you’re equally being fair to the renters.”
Mr Roberts said: “Well, you just hit the nail on the head. The landlord knows he’s covering his costs, but he isn’t because he doesn’t know what is coming next.
“Labour is proposing rent caps and if you look at Scotland, where they’ve done the rent cap, tenants have ended up much worse off from that. Now the new tenants can’t get a house.
“And when the landlord comes to rent it out again, he charges the most. And that’s what is happening in these bidding wars.”
Ms Burden said: “Obviously, we’ll have to wait and see all the parties’ different manifestos as to how they’re going to deal with this.
“But I guess that’s always been the case for any landlord. There’s always going to be some uncertainty for landlords.”
Mr Roberts replied: “There’s not as much certainty now and most of us are aware that a lot of Labour are anti-landlord, but you get rid of the landlord, and you’ve got no houses.
“You know, they’ve been calling for landlords to pack up and more great landlords are packing up when given the choice.
“There will be lots of landlords fighting for tenants – my tenants can’t leave me anyway, you know, I’m probably one of the rare ones.
“I want to sell a lot of my houses, but I can’t because they can’t get anywhere because of things like this bidding war.”
He continued: “I won’t leave them in that position because I’ve got morals and a conscience.
“But a lot of landlords, it’s something like 60% of landlords, don’t give rent increases, but because we don’t know when the next tax is coming from, I’ve got to get in as much as I can because I just don’t know.
“There’s no certainty anymore. I can’t even look after a family anymore.”
Mr Roberts added: “Lots of landlords are packing up and the more you talk about banning bidding wars and landlords not refusing pets, you’ll have no landlords left.”
The chief executive of the National Residential Landlords Association, Ben Beadle, told BBC’s Newsbeat that he accepts that bidding wars happen but says many problems in the private rental market are due to supply issues.
He said: “You can’t go around banning everything.
“What I would say is we need to look at what’s forcing people to make these decisions.”
A government spokesperson told the programme: “It is ultimately for landlords and tenants to agree the amount of rent that should be charged when a tenancy begins.
“Our Renters (Reform) Bill will deliver a fairer, more secure, and higher quality private rental sector for landlords and tenants.”
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Mick Roberts
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Sign Up10:45 AM, 7th December 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by David100 at 07/12/2023 - 10:17
Same here. Please come buy my houses if u promise to keep the tenants rent the same for 2 years & give them 10 year tenancy.
You can do the job.
We should be telling this Generation Rent then, if we doing such a bad job, please u come buy the houses, I'll give u £10,000 discount each one if u promise the above. See if u can make the numbers add up while giving tenant gold taps & not paying any rent for a year once Section 21 been issued.
Gromit
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Sign Up11:05 AM, 7th December 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 06/12/2023 - 10:49The Government has got the money. taxpayers money, (our money) but it chooses to spent it on other things.
Squandering £100bn+ (and counting) on the vanity HS2 project for instance - £100bn would be enough to build 750,000 affordable homes.
Beaver
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Sign Up13:53 PM, 7th December 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Gromit at 07/12/2023 - 11:05
The HS2 project is capital expenditure not revenue expenditure and governments treat that kind of finance differently when they look at 'balancing the books'. When they 'balance the books' they do things that they would be prosecuted for, and possibly imprisoned for, if they were the directors of a publicly listed company.
The government hasn't got the money. The tax burden in this country is already relatively high to the point that they know it will discourage investment into the UK. The only place they could possibly go to where there is enough money to make a difference to both the housing situation and reducing the emissions from housing is UK pensions. If you could invest your SIPP in a category A 2 bed house in Scotland or category A 2 bed flat in London you'd be providing a house. But you can't do that.
But I could invest my SIPP in a company providing bombs, land mines or automatic weapons to some foreign despot.
Gromit
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Sign Up14:10 PM, 7th December 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Beaver at 07/12/2023 - 13:53Investing in 750,000 houses is a capital expenditure.
Beaver
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Sign Up14:40 PM, 7th December 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Gromit at 07/12/2023 - 14:10
Versus investing in e.g. roads, railways, a national grid that can cope with the capacity for electricity generation from wind farms, neither they nor the international capital markets would view this as fitting in with their definition of investment in 'infrastructure' which is how they view their off-balance-sheet-financing-that-the-rest-of-us-would-be-prosecuted-for-if-we-were-in-public-office, in order to 'balance the books'.
Although you are right in the sense that the jobs market depends upon employees being able to find accommodation near where their jobs are. At the same time though a government that overspent on Covid doesn't have enough money for roads, rail, infrastructure to cope with electricity generation, schools, hospitals etc. They can't even fund those bankrupt councils that have fallen foul of all the employment 'rights' that people think they ought to have in the public sector. If you took your buy-to-let money and invested it in premium bonds the government wouldn't use that to pay for housing. They'd be paying for private-sector pensions and the NHS holy cow.
They haven't got the money.
And to make matters worse the net migration they say they are going to control may be exacerbating the problem. There's a discussion about that here:
https://www.property118.com/zoopla-boss-blames-record-migration-for-uk-rent-crisis/#comment-167903
They haven't got the money. And the only place where there's enough money is in UK pensions.
Want to buy a gun or some bombs anyone?
Steve O'Dell
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Sign Up9:51 AM, 8th December 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Mick Roberts at 06/12/2023 - 11:40
Mick where the tenants go is not your problem and should not stop you selling, the tax you pay to the government is for the government to shoulder the burden. As it is you shoulder the burden and pay the government for them to do nothing.
Steve A
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Sign Up18:34 PM, 8th December 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Martin Roberts at 06/12/2023 - 10:10
I like that. Of course you need to make sure the tax man doesn't come after you for tax on the £2,000 not the £400 you actually receive since the £1,600 difference should be accounted for as bad debt which you cannot write off until you have proved you have taken all possible steps to recover!
Mick Roberts
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Sign Up5:52 AM, 9th December 2023, About A year ago
Reply to the comment left by Steve O'Dell at 08/12/2023 - 09:51
It shouldn't be, but when someone lived there 20+ years & it's their home & u been their wedding etc. & they've been good, it's hard to say I'm selling, can u find somewhere else. 10+ years ago, I could have found 'em somewhere else, but the Landlords on here that rent to Benefit tenants know it's nigh on impossible for them to get anywhere now.
David Nichols
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Sign Up9:32 AM, 9th December 2023, About A year ago
How totally illogical is this. A landlord sets a price, gets inundated with enquiries and those unsuccessful complain the rent is too much.. So a landlord lowers the price to a guide price, tenants apply with their highest affordable bid, and those unsuccessful complain a landlord is creating bidding wars. And who is judging the landlord takes the highest bid, as the landlord may choose the safest and most suited tenant for the property.
The result is the same as still 1 successful application and umpteen disappointed angry failed ones because of lack of supply.
Does labour want a PRS, and do they just want to punish us for housing people who want to rent cos the state cannot.
GlanACC
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Sign Up9:42 AM, 9th December 2023, About A year ago
I have 6 properties left, all paid for. I don't need the rental income, the kids don't want the properties. I won't be turfing the tenants out. I have just put the rents up but are still arount 50 to 100 less than the going rate. I may leave them to a cats charity.