The Landlord Landscape

We find ourselves in unsettled times with high inflation driven by some external factors, near full employment yet facing a potential recession. Higher interest rates are already colouring the wider property market, with some price drops being reported by bodies such as the Nationwide Building Society who saw a 0.9% fall in October.

There also is a shortage of affordable housing in the UK. Despite this landlords are not necessarily receiving the best of media coverage, with rogue cases of bad practice being widely reported with not too much rebalancing being done outside of bodies such as the NRLA (National Residential Landlords Association).

In addition landlords face a changing regulatory landscape with the forthcoming ban on Section 21 Evictions and even the Scottish Parliament passing emergency legislation to freeze rents until March 2023 at the earliest.

This environment has led to the NRLA CEO Ben Beadle to comment:

“Whatever the Government’s plans, a wide range of reforms are desperately needed to support the sector. The supply crisis in the sector must be addressed urgently, while much more needs to be done to root out criminal and rogue landlords. Likewise vulnerable tenants can and should be better supported by unfreezing housing benefit rates.”

There is no doubt that the private rented sector is in a degree of turmoil at the moment and action will need to be taken to free up supply.

Things could of course change if we see mortgage rates settle at a time when some good value investments begin to appear on the market. Yields could then look a little more attractive and given some encouragement for the rented sector we could see a rosier outlook for landlords and tenants alike.

If you are a landlord and require legal assistance please contact us.