The main landlords’ trade body has blasted the government for ‘breaking’ the private rented sector through laws, measures and comments deliberately aimed at reducing supply.
The National Residential Landlords Association says that since 2015 the government has “embarked on a deliberate effort to discourage investment in private rented housing.”
In a statement - on the day of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement - the NRLA says this has included measures to restrict mortgage interest relief and imposing a three per cent stamp duty levy on the purchase of homes to rent out.
On top of that it cites that earlier this year the Housing Secretary, Michael Gove, argued that shrinking the private rented sector would help more people become homeowners.
The NRLA draws a link between these government actions and official figures which show that the number of households in the private rented sector has fallen by over a quarter of a million over the past five years. However, demand from prospective tenants continues to soar, with students among those scrabbling to access a dwindling number of properties.
According to Zoopla, so far this year the demand for private rented housing in the UK is up 142 per cent compared with the five-year average, whilst the supply of such homes has fallen by 46 per cent. A similar trend has been reported by Rightmove which reports that, in Q3 2022, tenant demand increased by 20 per cent compared with Q3 2021.
Data researched for the NRLA has found that in the third quarter of the year 65 per cent of landlords reported that the demand for private rented housing had gone up. This was up almost 10 points compared with the previous year.
Local authorities have also raised concerns that the flight of housing out of the private rented sector puts extra pressure on already lengthy social housing waiting lists. The trend of ever-increasing demand takes place despite the number of owner-occupied households in England having increased by over one million in the past five years.
With the demand for rental housing set to grow further as mortgages become more expensive, the NRLA is warning that further tax hikes by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt today will serve only to exacerbate the crisis facing many tenants trying to find housing.
Ben Beadle, the association’s chief executive, says: “The government’s strategy for the private rented sector lies in tatters. The fact that the supply of homes to rent is falling despite an increase in demand is a damning indictment of tax decisions which serve only to increase rents and make home ownership more difficult to achieve.
“Further tax hikes on the sector risk making an already bad situation worse. Ministers need to recognise that a healthy and vibrant private rental market needs to sit alongside, rather than be in competition with, efforts to support homeownership.”
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They’re just following orders , wef puppets
The illusion of democracy, biggest scam since the last one …
Woke lot. Everyone sense of entitlement . They should work hard like every else. They take our dreams away we aspire for. I was hoping to semi retire at sixty as health not good. But hey benefits system here I come. Why bother
It’s sad that in this country crime really does pay. And the benefits systems keeps on rolling not only do our own prefer to milk it but we have all of the dinghies invading to join in. But work hard and they want om to take it to pay for it all. The Autumn statement is a disgrace.
yes, I hate it that I get no benefits because I have over 16k in assets, even though I have been close to minimum wage all my life.
I see this as a good factual assessment from NRLA of what’s happening to the private rental sector.
Sunak & Gove needs to read this before today budget but I suppose they have already penned their nonsense, a shame this Article wasn’t posted a week earlier.
I was buying then pulled Michael. A home I wanted which would of done me into old age. Can't really have a business model with all this crap going on.!
Having sold on rental, I too was planning to buy an additional house but pulled out. The figures no longer work. So one less in the rental market!
I'm evicting a lady aged 79 - long term tenant. A single mum of a young teenager. And a young single mum with four children. This last one is the one I am really upset about. She is a good tenant and a good mum. I have told my other tenants that it is only a matter of time. I went into landlording - believe it or not - because I wanted to help people. We have invested a lot of money and an enormous amount of time. Of course the finance had to work - we are not particularly wealthy now and when we started we had to struggle to afford an extra mortgage. My tenants are mostly 'benefits and working' so no chance of them buying. But I'm tired of it all now, so sadly we are gradually getting rid of their homes.
Pauline, it is such a dreadful position to find yourselves in, as we have been experiencing ourselves. We explained in detail, to our good tenants, the reasons why we had no other choices left to us and of course, where the responsibility for this utter chaos lay. Take care.
Pauline- same position here, I will have to evict a pensioner, don’t want too, but the sums and the hassle don’t add up.
Same here S24 but mainly unreasonable Selective Licensing demands
A fair summary of what has gone on and a sad state of affairs especially for anyone who is looking for a rental home. Which will shortly include people who can no longer get an affordable mortgage. My mortgage guy says people are facing an extra £300-£600 in mortgage interest per month. On top of all the other cost of living increases. How long until the govt wake up and realise what they are doing?
The government need to realise exactly how much the Private LLs are helping them with the drastic housing situation in this country.
They don’t, and all they want to do is make it more and more difficult to be a private LL.
I for one will never rent one of my properties again. Once a property of mine becomes vacant it is being sold and mostly not to LLs as a lot are also getting out of this sector.
The government and councils are going to have a massive issue coming down the road where many thousands of tenants are going to be needing homes to live in.
They don’t have many and definitely not enough as they will be needing. But they know best. Put your money into B&Bs or cheap budget hotels as that will be the massive demand very soon.
I now believe the Government are deliberately wrecking the private rental sector causing harm and distress. The NRLA need to set up a petition and legal challenge to this Government deliberately causing harm.I am sure they would get landlords contributions
Gordon Brown left a big problem for the Tories , now the Tories are planning to get their own back with labour in 2 years time, no doubt labour will bring in rent caps and eviction bans but that won't cure the housing problem they inherit
It seems that the government have gone out of their way to wreck the PRS. The kicks in the teeth from them are relentless. There is nothing they could do now to persuade me not to sell my portfolio, (2 sold already) even the threat of higher capital gains taxes etc......I'm out regardless! I'm in Scotland so the current eviction ban will delay matters but I'll be getting shot of my properties one way or another but not to these 'Sell your tenanted property' outfits that seem to be popping up everywhere. They're waiting like vultures on the side-lines to snap up under market value properties. You'd need to be desperate for cash to use one of these schemes. Enough is enough!
Watch mark Steyn on gbnews, it explains a lot.last night he pointed out that Klaus Schwab was at the g20 meeting giving them their orders
Wow, the NRLA must be worried they will be out of a job soon, with so many Landlord's leaving the market. They now speak when it is too late!
I cannot agree that the Government are deliberately destroying PRS. This would imply they know what they are doing.
They have formed an opinion, some based on a horrible human trait of jealousy. They genuinely believe that we do very little for a lot of money and nothing is going to change their minds.
The Bank of England are just as bad, clueless with the economy.
What really bugs me though is that these people still get their fat wages followed by their fat pensions.
There is a name for these people. An organism that lives on the host, doing the host harm is called a.....
Yes the WEF want to knock it all down to start again. We need to write to government and tenants too saying they disagree with this.
We never signed up to the WEF and tell them to opt out of the great reset.
Winston church. We will fight them on the beeches....etc I can hear now
Who woke the dogs up !
A very welcome, albeit far late in the day direct intervention from the NRLA.
NRLA are quite roundly criticised by many landlords, both members and Non-members for being weak and woke in not being more forceful in standing up for landlords and , " saying it how it is "
Welcome change @BenBeadle
Nice article… but way too late, Mr Gove is correct though, by landlords selling up it is helping first time buyers…. My children are looking for a house now, and all the recent viewings have been ex PRS properties, so that rings true. It’s all over , the PRS may go on but it won’t continue for everyone…. Me included. Adios.
We have three properties due to be re-mortgaged next year, the first being in May. We are very anxious about how much the increase in mortgage payments will be, following the BOE's increase in interest rate. If we have a negative stress test by the lenders, we might even be refused lending. We retired early on the strength of our work pensions but need rental income to boost our monthly income until we receive our state pensions. We probably can't increase the rents as the market does not demand it in those areas, so might have to consider selling them instead. It is good financial sense to sell one property per year, but we might have to be forced into selling all three in 2023/24 and just absorb whatever CGT comes our way. What I really object to is having to pay full council tax whilst the properties are empty on the market for sale. This payment, multiplied by three, without any rental income will be unsustainable for us. We could be looking at repossession of one or more properties. We've worked and saved hard and been successful landlords for twelve years, and now it could all be for nothing. Thanks Liz Truss:(
Just renewed a 2year fixed rate from £200 to £450.
Karren gates, it's nothing to do with Truss, it's LDIs that were the problem. Her mistake was thinking that previous governments were behaving ethically.
PossessionFriend.uk
The old houses you want cheap for your children, will filter across to everyone. Soon no one will be able to sell, build , rent any home with EPC below C Part of the great reset. Smiling now? That,ll come in next.
Yes that’s the next step , your property will become worthless , all due to the climate scam and the ridiculous epc rubbish
You’ll own nothing , what a wonderful future to look forward to
And people still think governments are there to help them …
Correction Simon
Totally agree, but how do we get people to understand that letting market is needed. Plus it must be fair to tenants and LANDLORDS. Not totally biased to tenants. Which is is the direction government has been going. Why should landlords not be able to get tenants prosecuted for damages and threatening behaviours. It should not be that landlord have to pay for a civil prosecution which will can only result in a bill they can not pay even if you can find. If I damage property I could be in prison it would be a criminal offence. Shouldn't there be consequences for tenants and landlords. Not just loose of deposit which only pays for some rent a bad tenant has not paid. Where is the English sense of fairness.
Beverley surely you understand that the lettings market is biased heavily in favour of the landlord? I know, Shelter told me so.
The destruction of the working and middle class is their true aim
Bring us all down to serfdom , levelling up ?
Bringing down , they want a population that’s easily controlled
The Covid crap , now the climate scam , what next ? Alien Invasion … ?
Truth is often stranger than fiction
Well all this is alien to me George 🤣🤣
They want us to own nothing. Heads you lose. Tails you lose.
Simon, don’t really see the gain for your children / first time buyers, before if the price was higher and Mortgage interest were very low probably more manageable, say now you buy for less but Mortgage rate 3 or 4 times as much I can’t anyone better off. The ones that will suffer are the people that were roped in paying over the odds prices with those ponzi schemes when rates were low.
On top of all this, the immigrants keep arriving. All part of the planned destruction of our already damaged society. All cause mortality is now significantly higher than at any time during the last 3 years - I wonder how that's happening, should be obvious by now to anyone with half a brain. Not hearing anything from the controlled MSM.
It looks like the PRS is doomed. Only one property (EPC D) occupied by long-term tenants who love living there! What to do?!
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