What do the falling house prices mean for landlords?

May has brought more bad news for some landlords with the Nationwide Building Society reporting a 3.4% drop in house prices in the year to May ’23 and interest rates that are expected to rise to 5.5.% later this year.

Landlords with a long-term outlook, high-yield properties, and/or either no mortgage or fixed-price mortgages, may be tempted to ignore any loss in equity as a normal market fluctuation.

Landlords with large amounts of disposable cash might be looking forward to buying better-quality property at lower prices.

However, any landlord with a minimal profit or those planning to sell before the abolishment of Section 21 should consider selling now before equity drops and business costs rise.

 The dilemmas that landlords who want to sell all or some of their buy-to-let properties, before prices drop further, face are:

• Waiting for tenants to leave usually takes too long and can involve property being empty for months while sales complete.
• To try to overcome the waiting part (but not the ‘empty property with no income’ part) of this problem, there have been huge rises in landlords issuing Section 21 (S21) notices but if tenants refuse to leave after a S21 notice has been served (as many more are doing due to their own cost-of-living crises), landlords often face more costs (including solicitor and bailiff fees), huge amounts of stress to gain possession through the courts and the threat that tenants might stop paying rent as a result of the process.
• If tenants can argue an S21 notice was not issued correctly or in accordance with their rights and their landlord’s legal obligations, the process may need to be repeated multiple times until a court instruct the tenants to vacate. If they do not vacate within the timeframe given by the court, landlords will need to go back to court and get a court appointed bailiff to recover possession.
• If, as expected, there is a flood of landlords serving S21s when the abolishment date is confirmed, the problem is only to get worse.

 So what are landlords doing to avoid empty property, long delays and/or legal costs if they want to sell buy-to-let property without waiting to sell with vacant possession or without long periods of running empty property while a sale is completing?

While some will attempt to sell property with tenants in situ, most high street style estate agents will not get involved in collecting tenancy information and sales normally take longer. Choosing this option, landlords face higher legal fees and more risk a sale will collapse from ‘complications’ or falling property prices causing buyers to want to renegotiate.

Multiply the problems by the number of properties landlords want to sell and it is understandable why many landlords are under huge financial and mental stresses.

The Landlord Sales Agency specialise in helping landlords to BUY or SELL buy-to-let property. They:

• Sell to owner occupiers and investors to ensure seller get the best price possible
• Sell with reliable tenants in place to landlords looking for a readymade business with proven success
• Ensure all required certificates are legislation is current and in place
• Manage the process to provide vacant possession, if necessary
• Arrange practical, financial and external help for tenants to overcome problems they face as a result of the sale and moving out is in everyone’s best interest
• Have a database of 30,000+ of private buyers and investors
• Sell single properties and property portfolios
• Secure offers early in the process to avoid gazumping and wasted costs

They have also developed coordinated work practices with independent services providers in financial, construction and legal industries so clients can incorporate additional expertise in the process to benefit from:

• Proper planning and tax-efficient company structuring to minimise annual tax bills and Capital Gains tax rate from 28% to 18% when selling property
• Structural/building problems solved

With experts predicting the Golden Age of rapid property price growth is over, there has never been a better time for landlords to enjoy the equity they have built up through capital gains and no better company to make sure they get to keep as much of their profits as possible.

Join the 200+ landlords who have chosen Landlord Sales Agency today to sell their buy-to-let properties faster and with less disruption to business than most (if not all) other options.

Contact Landlord Sales Agency today to find out why they are the best in the business.

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