New research has come to a conclusion that will surprise few - that landlords today are twice as likely to be selling as buying.
Findings published by research consultancy BVA-BDRC - in a study commissioned by the National Residential Landlords Association - show that in Q2 2023, some 12 per cent of landlords in England and Wales sold properties. In contrast, only five per cent purchased.
The research also found that 37 per cent of landlords plan to reduce their portfolios in the coming year - this is the highest proportion recorded.
Just eight per cent say they plan to increase the number of properties they let.
All this is despite ever growing demand: 67 per cent of landlords in the study report that tenant demand has increased in the second quarter of the year – another all-time high.
Now the NRLA warns that the supply crisis will only deepen without urgent government action.
It calls for ministers to scrap tax changes which serve to deter landlords from investing in private rented accommodation.
This includes the three per cent stamp duty surcharge on the purchase of homes to let as well as the decision to restrict mortgage interest relief on long term homes to rent.
NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle says: "Whilst the Chancellor has developed a mortgage charter to help homeowners, the lack of assistance for renters and their landlords is clear for all to see.
“Households renting privately are facing the full force of the supply crisis, and change is needed now to prevent the situation from worsening over the next 12 months.
“The government must reverse its damaging tax hikes on the sector. It is frankly absurd to have a tax system that punishes landlords for providing the homes tenants so desperately need whilst favouring holiday lets.”
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No one listens to Beadle’s About. Why does he bother? Landlords need some real representation.
I've said it for years, but every time I try and engage a group of landlords to pull them to fight yet more government intervention, or council abuse....
They're not interested, too used to working alone and being isolated, it's their own fault they're being steam rollered without resistance.
There should be a rally in Westminster with 5,000+ landlords handing in a partition, else we'll all cancel our votes and sell our properties, the weakness of position is driven by themselves
Hit Beadle inbox
ben.beadle@nrla.org.uk
And anytime the NRLA do say anything they focus on tax changes or fixed term tenancies bcoz Beadle is a student Landlord and ignore S21 which for many of us is the make or break issue that will cause us to sell
Absolutely spot on Catherine. The ability to keep control of our properties is fundamental to remaining a landlord. Nobody in their right mind would hand their properties over indefinitely to tenants.
As I have said many times before, families need to wake up and realise why it's becoming so difficult for them to rent homes now.
Decent tenants are only evicted if landlords need to sell, which will still happen under new legislation, but landlords are much less likely to sell when they have decent tenants.
The new legislation will only help rogue tenants and harm all decent tenants and landlords.
In Scotland I now only rent to groups of students with solvent property owning guarantors.
I've written too him several times, and he points to his increasing membership....
Like he's winning
Hit Beadle inbox
ben.beadle@nrla.org.uk
Section 24 needs to be scrapped immediately and we need to be returned to being taxed in the same way as every other self employed person. Classifying rental income as unearned investment income is a complete nonsense. Owning one extra property may be accidental but any more than that is a conscious business decision and should be treated as a business 100% of the time, not just when it suits the government.
Taper relief on CGT needs to be reinstated. Other countries pay zero CGT after a certain number of years ownership. We used to have taper relief so we weren't being taxed on inflation. In the last general election even Labour proposed indexation relief in their manifesto. Why would anyone enter the industry when there is no sensible exit route?
The whole eviction situation needs to be sorted but I'm realistic enough to recognise that will take time and there will be much arguing and a complete lack of funding in the Court system will cause problems.
Fixing the tax problems is easy and certain. Reforming eviction rights is much, much harder. Leaving it as it is isn't really satisfactory unless the Court capacity is boosted and all backlogs cleared. Section 21 is fine in theory as long as tenants don't actually understand it and believe they have to be out by the date on the original Section 21 notice. If they don't vacate that's when it clearly shows how broken the system is with lengthy waits for a Court date. I don't especially care what eviction notices are called but the system does need to be fit for purpose. Eviction of bad tenants needs to be swift and certain. It's hard to know how few genuinely good tenants actually get evicted as landlords tend to favour S21 over S8 even when there is clear fault.
Hit Beadle inbox
ben.beadle@nrla.org.uk
Was 12 properties now 4 properties.
That’s seven more off the rental market.
Government and Councils have been stoking up what is now becoming a massive housing issue with all their constant interference and taxation of one kind or another.
The government and councils don’t have properties to house all these families now that Landlords are selling up and getting out of the rental market.
Most weeks I get councils contacting me wanting properties for homeless families that they now can’t deal with.
They have caused this problem and it is starting to become a massive problem.
PRS LLs have for years been bailing out Government and Councils but we’ve now had more than enough of legislation and tax grabbing we’re getting out of BTL.
Where they are going to get properties to house all these homeless now and the thousands of the future?
Yes, we have 10 and most will be sold. Just accepted an offer this week for the first one.
I am an excellent landlord with exceptionally well presented properties but will not put up with this dictatorial attitude by the Scottish Government.
You caused this housing problem … get on the with the fall out!
The taxation regime on LLs shows just how unpopular we are: extra SDLT, S24, higher rates of CGT & having to pay in 60 days are all punitive measures designed to force us out. Guess what - we're going!
Nothing will bring me back into the PRS once my existing tenants have moved on & I've sold up. Some long term ones will probably need to be evicted evicted eventually, but with interest rates now back to 'normal levels' risk free cash investments are looking very attractive.
I totally agree with the interest rate comment I have opened a fixed rate ISA paying me more than the rental yield Planning on selling up soon
The current narrative involves fabricating the history of shorthold assured tenancies. They were specifically introduced to provide short term tenancies with an end date for tenants who wanted that arrangement. Section 21 required that landlords served a notice two months before the end date of the contract. There was no question of eviction being involved - there was supposed to be mutual agreement about the length of the tenancy.
Now they want us to step in and provide indefinite social housing which should have been provided by councils. Any landlord would be very unwise to do that - and tax changes certainly won't make any difference.
So much deceit and so many lies!
Ellie - there is no need to insult those of us who happily provide long term homes for people who would previously have qualified for Social housing.
I have 5 tenants who 30 years ago would have easily got Council houses. One has been with us over 15 years, another is 14 years, another 7 years. The other two from the early days of the first lockdown. They are all decent people who just don't happen to earn enough to buy a house.
My houses are the tools of my trade. I am happy to have long term tenants treating them as safe, secure homes.
Tax changes would make an enormous difference.
We didn't all inherit millions.
Jo I have never heard you once put the landlords' perspective on any issue - you always support tenants' rights.
You do argue for tax changes, but clearly nobody wants all landlords to exit the private rental sector.
Ellie - could that be because I regard tenants as human beings not simply commodities to be pushed around on a whim?
I also recognise that the PRS consists of both landlords and tenants who ideally are mutually supportive. We need tenants in order to be landlords. Tenants need landlords in order to have a roof over there heads. One can't exist without the other.
Also I grew up in the poverty trap and fully understand how poverty feels. You said a couple of days ago you paid over a million in IHT so have presumably had very different life experiences to me.
The PRS is a very wide reaching concept with many different tenant types. I'm happy with my method of operation and tenant profile and have no plans to exit the PRS. You seem to be less happy with yours. You certainly don't speak for me with your obsession with kicking tenants out at every opportunity. Just as I don't speak for you with my obsession with tax reforms and long term stability for tenants.
You are not helping tenants at all, Jo.
The private rental sector was virtually non-existent when landlords lost control of their properties in the past; nobody could find anywhere to rent.
You keep making personal attacks on my circumstances. I have spent every penny I have had on tax - inheritance tax, income tax, council tax, licensing etc. and I have carried out an enormous amount of work on the properties.
Are you jealous of landlords who have any money?
I can't see any insult.
As the default situation I require fixed term tenancies. I want to specifically agree to extentions. Having gone through the S21 and subsequent eviction processes on what should be a periodic tenancy I was alarmed at how difficult it was to give the notice and successfully evict. We are all different but for me it's genuinely fixed term tenancies or else. I don't want a situation any worse than now. Other happy to rent for long term etc that's fine that's their choice.
Absolutely right, Nick - it is absolutely the right of any landlord to rent their property long-term, if that is what they want to do, but that doesn't mean that they want to lose complete control of it.
I don't want tenants to be uhappy or insecure. But giving them so much power and security is very unhealthy. Many are not of good character - i.e. hard working, good principles, honest etc. But of course many are. If and when they will have so much power they will be free to turn bad. Even if they were good, if you are getting them out and PRS is dead they will have nowhere to go but to the council and put up a fight.
It is landlords who own the properties. They should have the power. A lot of tenants haven't worked for anything. They have no stake at all in the property. Tenants' rights must be secondary to the landlord.
Ideally there should be agreement about the length of the tenancy. I always have tried to make sure that the tenants and I are on the same page about that because it avoids problems.
Unfortunately, activists just want us, in effect, to transfer ownership to the tenants. When that happens the private rental sector virtually ceases to exist.
Nick - Ellie edited her original comment and changed "lack of intelligence" to "unwise".
You have highlighted on many occasions exactly what is wrong with the current Section 21. It took you months to gain possession of your property. Theoretically it's fine but in practice you had a nightmare with it.
Wouldn't it make more sense to campaign for a system that actually works rather than cling on to a system that is seriously flawed?
I don't like some of the RRB proposals but have a horrible feeling some of the bits that will prove to be horrendous will sneak in because too much focus is being put on retaining Section 21 in its current format.
I edited it from unintelligent to unwise, because I thought that there could be intelligent people who meant well by handing their properties over indefinitely to tenants, but I think it would be unwise because future legislation may make it very difficult to regain possession if you want to sell. Also there are reasons for wanting to get your property empty without having to sell it. There are major repairs, for example, which are much better carried out when the property is empty.
Section 21, with all its faults, is much better than losing the right to end a tenancy without needing to sell the property etc. Even Welsh Labour retained a no fault ending to tenancies- they were wise and intelligent to do that.
Agree Jo.
I require S21 to go back to what it was pretty much. You give notice without all the gas cert, Right to Rent Book, deposits and retaliatory eviction nonsense. I would require to be able to hire private 'bailiff' companies upon the expiry of the notice to evict. Not to get caught up in the court system at all. It's getting worse and worse and worse.
I can't campaign for the above as politically the direction of travel is anti-landlord for one. The next step will be a big step for tenants. Perhaps it could be watered down a little but any campaigning will just make a dent. The NRLA are not effective.
I see no hope for landlords! I consider Gove just said to the Renter's Reform Coalition you write the White Paper / RRB. I'll just stick the Dept of Levelling Up's logo on the front and write the foreword. All of it is horrendous.
Jo it's always nice to consider the other guy to be human, deceint and honest, problem is all too often they are not, being self employed you soon find out that a lot of people are no more than animals and simply cannot be trusted, a sad fact now
You must put your health first Andrew. Try not to get entangled with crooks who make you worked up. I know you always want the best for your tenants.
Nick - we probably all want Section 21 to work in the way you describe.
The simple fact is it no longer does.
Section 21 was abused by Lettings Agents back in the days when fees could be charged for everything. Now we are all (landlords and tenants) suffering the consequences of their actions. How much of the current anecdotal evidence used by activists refers back to before tenants fees were outlawed?
Councils don't help matters by advising tenants to stay put until the bailiffs turn up. That is blatant abuse of both landlords and tenants and highly stressful for all concerned.
We need a clear, robust, fair eviction system to be invented and fully tested before abolishing the dysfunctional system we currently have.
Properly separating fault based evictions would be a very good starting point. Fault based evictions need to be swift and certain to both free up properties for good tenants and encourage less than good tenants to adhere to the terms of their tenancy agreements. That would improve the quality of life for everyone.
The real sticking point is what to do with genuinely bad tenants. Where are they going to live if they get evicted? No one is going to want them as next door neighbours and the government won't allow trailer parks in the middle of the countryside.
Jo - I require it to work as I describe or else. It was tried and tested.
Agree if there is a new system it needs testing. Not sure how, as in who wants to be the guinea pigs? Maybe some desperate landlords. Then tenants can object and say I want the old system?
Bad tenants to the council. Good tenants in the PRS.
Where – I don’t know. The boat people are filling up MOD barracks and hotels etc…
You are right Ellie. We shouldn’t be supplying a property with BTL financing for long term social housing. Social housing is subsidised housing for people who don’t want/can’t pay for the true cost of living there. The model can only work with additional tax payer funds. It’s charity. GR, Shelter etc requiring social housing with subsidised rent. Full Maintenance package on demand, Passive input ventilation to cater for their tenant created mould habit (TCM) need to be looking to provide a cheaper solution ie sectional housing, caravans, tents, containers. The age of expecting a brick built property at a rent they ‘want’ to pay is coming to an end. It’s too expensive!!
That's an interesting point about BTL mortgages on subsidised rents. I know the LHA varies around the country and in some places was lower than Social rents. I operate in an area where Social rents are quite a lot lower than LHA, which in turn is quite a lot lower than open market rent. Last time I checked on Rightmove there were only 6 properties at LHA rent in the entire 500 square mile BRMA. Clearly virtually no landlords are renting at LHA rent levels nevermind Social rent. Getting a mortgage would be virtually impossible without a huge deposit due to stress testing.
Renting to people who would historically have been Social tenants doesn't mean they are Social tenants. It also doesn't mean they are unemployed or on minimum wage. Families can earn over £50K and still be entitled to LHA or Social Housing. I've never understood why Social rents are so ludicrously cheap. I know they're supposed to be non profit making but most Local Authorities and Housing Associations seem to be massively in debt.
Leasing a property long-term to the Council would be about the only way the property would be occupied by Social tenants and that's a completely different concept. Mortgage lenders have quite strict rules on how long such arrangements can be for although they can usually be renewed multiple times.
You're right that alternative forms of housing need to be looked at.
Thing is Jo I empathise with how you see your position as a LL to provide long term stable housing and this is admirable. I sort of still feel the same way but how can we provide our service when the gov and GR Shelter etc are interfering and frustrating the legal process and changing the contract? The whole rental game has changed since I started and honestly for tenants it isn’t for the better. We are all stressed poorer and worse off before the intervention. We need the ability to end a tenancy when we need to because tenant isn’t paying rent damaging the property or making our life miserable
I live in Flintshire at present it is run by the Local Labour party, there is a shortfall of over two million pounds in unpaid rent, even though these households receive payments towards their rent from the government. The council admit that they are not chasing the majority of the arrears as it would not be economical. A few years ago the council wrote off a few million pounds of rent arrears for the same reason. If these new laws are enforced then landlords will have practically no redress with the already lopsided law being taken full advantage of by every scrounging tenant, or do-gooder organisation, and their free legal representation, Every business person knows that if it ain’t profitable then it ain’t worth running. So my advice is, Give up, Sell up, because the coming storm is aimed directly in the landlords direction and there is not going to be any helping hand from the government which ever colour, whether it be Blue, Red, Yellow or Green. The private landlord has become public enemy number one.
100%
I've just seen an advert which reminded me of another reason why many landlords are selling up - threatening to force us to allow animals in our properties intended for human habitation.
This advert showed a pet owner shampoo and vacuum up pet excrement - and then tipped the filthy fluid down the KITCHEN SINK!
Why are some people so ignorant of the need for proper hygiene?
Some waste water systems treat grey and black water differently but irresponsible pet owners are putting us all at risk.
I am no longer going to observe a NO PETS policy but will now adopt a NO PET OWNERS policy - they're far more dangerous as they're freely allowed in all public places without any way of clean people being aware of their presence until we get ill. A pet owner could be sitting at the next table to you today!
Jo, don’t agree not enough focus on loosing Section 21 the very foundation of all Private landlord lettings before which there was virtually none.
Obviously the whole industry is based on the 1988 Housing Act which included Section 21, why do you think landlords are getting out and rents through the roof, its because of the removal of Section 21, the main reason full stop 🛑.
Agree with you 100% Michael!
Michael - I'm curious about your assertion there was virtually no letting before 1988.
My grandfather was a landlord from about 1900 to 1975. I never had a landlord focused conversation with him as he died a year before I left school but no one in the family has ever said being a landlord was a bad thing for him. It was just something he did.
I had no difficulty renting a bedsit in 1981. I was only 16 at the time. How many of us would dream of letting to a 16 year old today?
So is your experience of pre 1988 indicative of the national situation or just something in London?
Let’s not attack each other as this suits the Government agenda divide & conquer.
Social Tenants already have the rub of the green sit on your bum have loads of kids, have them all reared, housed and care for including yourself., get all the goodies including Children's allowance that not available to people who pay for it.
It beats saving for a Deposit, paying taxes and getting stuck with a big Mortgage around your neck.
Why complain about a benefits cap or do you think everyone should be entitled to everything regardless, in which case no incentive to do anything.
You’ll never have enough of Social Housing with this Policy you are creating them faster than you can build, or afford to build and that’s the tip of the iceberg you’ll have to keep them for life and probably their descendants.
Well said. It doesn't help it's the same sort of people all campaigning to keep letting the boat people in. That another 50,000 to 1) house somehow, 2) build 50,000 more homes to house those people and 3) pay for the housing + everything else. Some of the people we are letting in also reproduce large numbers of offspring too...
Section 21 was abused by some Tenants that’s been well established at some landlords meeting when landlords were complaining about being held to ransom.
Even to the point of Tenants making the Application and requiring landlord to sign, they have to go along with it or he’ll know what for. Then run along to the Housing Department waving the Court Order to be virtually guaranteed housing and jump the queues, they’ll miss it.
Section 21 has already been weakened so now we can’t even have the remnants.
Chipped away by several changes not least by Shelters 2015 De-Regulation Act when they failed with Sarah Tether Private Members Bill, supposed to be about property repair amongst others. Now an unwarranted head ache for me, they don’t have to prove anything just say it to suffice. I have a lead Tenant turned bad because of this nonsense. He says I haven’t done anything ever though all the compliance work was done for HMO Mandatory licence and Inspection twice, first one to require extra things some a bit silly, like move the Notice Board that was loaded with Documents from living room to hallway where it’s sure to get damaged with Tenants brushing past with a bag on their back.
Coat the kitchen Units with 3 coats of special specified fire treatment because she said they are made of wood.
Fireproof loft hatch but nothing up there only 30 cm insulation. The window restrictors but only top half opens. Yes she did come back to check.
The Tenant now says living room window needs changing but it doubled glazed Aluminium same as all others, ditto Double glazed Patio door.
He is currently in US touring LA in a camper van, the Rents are months behind I told him I would take £2k off if he brought it up to date he agreed, knocked off the £2k but didn’t bring rent up to date. I now doubt he is living there at all but subletting aided by law and possibly a big fine for me for something I do. I understand him girlfriend and baby are being housed and provided in an other Town.
The house is a lovely quality modern brick built cavity wall 3 Story Terraced Town house built about 35 years ago in Harrow, now no rent increase in 10 years from a low base, an identical house rented recently fo £1100. pm more than mine. Mine haven’t increased even Long before this Tenant came on the scene.
Stop making a mockery of us with your stupid laws.
You sound as though you have been through a tremendously unfair experience Michael! Must have made you so fed up.
If the rent is that much in arrears why haven't you issued a Section 8?
Because I am a landlord not a lawyer why should any landlord need to go to Court. Tenants don’t have to it works for them.
The last Court case that I had anything to do with took at least 13 appearance 5 years cost half a million a suicide and became case Law. Best wishes
Jo , no need to be curious it a fact Nationally that’s the very reason the 1988 Act & Section 21 was introduced because if let anyone into your property they immediately became a sitting Tenant, that didn’t work very well did it no one fool enough for that.
Just see how many letting Agents there were in London or else where most Estate Agents didn’t do letting at all.
I was a Renter in early 60’s to early ‘70’s for 9 years in North London, North West, North East, East Midlands and back to West London prior to Building my first house when no one would give me a Mortgage thank god,
That still doesn't fully make sense.
You rented for 9 years. I rented privately for 3 years and then got a Council tenancy.
People moved on for various reasons.
The only thing that don’t make sense here is the removal of Section 21 with THE RENTERS REFORM Bill that deliberately caused all this unnecessary misery, upheaval and financial ruin both for landlord & Tenant alike.
I never had a Council Tenancy, never a penny in Benefits of any
kind ever ever in 60 years, got the old cattle boat as a teenager no such thing as car ferries with only the most basic education and Dad rip no family support possible but helped support the remaining family.
Now we have Jeremy Hunt with his outrageous 45% tax not withstanding all the other costs, expenses and encumbrances been placed on us, it’s almost worth loosing the rent so he looses 45% as well. He said it hardly affects anyone another leach like Khan and Gove they are well matched, sorry Jo which bit didn’t make sense was it all.
There are Landlord's with mortgages and those without. This is a significant difference and means that each party will have very different priorities to each other.
I applaud Jo's views, mine are very similar. I do not mind having long term tenants, in fact I prefer them. They can only be long term as long as they look after the property, if they don't then they are not going to be long term. This then means that Section 21 being removed is not to my liking at all.
We will all make our own choices as to what we do with our properties, but anti-Landlord views will not go away.
Like many on here I will be selling, but only when a property becomes empty. Hopefully, I am almost at the end of the only eviction I have had to do and I can categorically state that the current system is not fit for purpose.
My remaining tenants I have had for years and have been outstanding, I am confident that this will not change.
I would no longer recommend anyone to become a Landlord as Government's of either colour appear to only wish to squeeze the money from you into their wasteful coffers!
I live in Bradford and know a fair few landlords. They buy houses for cash and the rents are paid in cash, usually without any formal agreements. They are all very happy with how this works for them. Landlords round here are definitely not selling up any time soon!
They're building up potential problems when, not if, it all goes pear shaped!
Tenants will hold such landlords to ransom.
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