In this weekend feature, Daniel Evans, chair of the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC) and the managing director of Home Inventories, outlines why the government's levelling up plans must include a real focus on lettings.
The government’s much-discussed levelling up agenda must include the provision of more new rental homes in all parts of the country.
The Association of Independent Inventory Clerks, which I chair, says that in certain parts of the country, the private rented sector is coming dangerously close to running out of homes completely, and as a result the Boris Johnson government must extend its flagship policy to the rental market as well.
We’ve had reduced social housing for the last 20 years, and at the same time the many restrictions on landlords have reduced the growth of the private rental system as a compensatory mechanism to fill this shortfall.
We also need to look at how unaffordable housing across the country has locked many first-time buyers out of getting on the property ladder, leading to the average first-time buyer age going up to the mid-30s.
Further to this is the larger demand for rental homes from the younger generations – who in many cases have to, or want to, rent for the long-term.
All of these things taken together means demand is very, very high – probably as high as it’s ever been for many decades – while supply just simply isn’t keeping pace. Such a gap between supply and demand can not be sustainable for the long-term.
While Build to Rent is helping to plug this gap somewhat, it is mostly focused on central urban areas and prime postcodes to maximise ROI – and still only accounts for about two to three per cent of the overall market.
So on its own, BTR is nowhere near enough to address the chronic stock shortage, particularly in suburban and countryside locations where the stock shortage is most acute and where BTR schemes are much rarer. Add to this a lack of brownfield and greenfield sites for development and you have a major problem when it comes to creating enough stock.
I believe that the long-term problem with such a dichotomy between supply and demand is that prices continue to soar. Rocket-like rent rises will simply end up making rental properties similarly unaffordable to generation rent, and they may decide to stay living with their parents for longer.
The stock shortage, which is already severe, could be made even worse by further restrictions on landlord, including the removal of Section 21. This could serve to drive more landlords out of the market, worsening the stock-side crisis even further.
So what is the solution?
Well, the government needs to create policies to promote affordable housing development (with open space available) in non-urban areas. It also needs, as the National Residential Landlords Association has pointed out, to encourage investment in the PRS rather than further legislation to remove landlords and reduce profitability.
There also needs to be an uptick in social housing, to reduce the burden of pressure on private landlords, and offer incentives to landlords when it comes to improving the eco-friendliness of their homes – with many landlords fearing the improvements required will cripple them financially.
Landlords also need a major say in the rental reform outlined in the Levelling Up White Paper, which is expected to be fleshed out in the White Paper on Rental Reform in spring.
We can’t completely disincentivise landlords, because the PRS will start to crumble and more rogue landlords will be able to slip through the net. New legislation and reforms can be welcome, but only if they bring everyone along and have long-term benefits for all parties – instead of merely being used to score political points.
*Daniel Evans is chair of the Association of Independent Inventory Clerks (AIIC)
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Sadly it's the AIIC and not the anti-Landlord NRLA saying this.
The slide started in 2008, and career minded politicians as you imply Daniel, have made isolated knee jerk policy decisions with absolutely no strategy in mind beyond their own prominence let alone a cohesive approach to the future of the housing market. I reckon we are 2.5 million homes short as we stand today, and that will take at least 15 years to recover even if we start smashing new build targets every year, more likely a generation. Alienating landlords is the last thing government can afford to do.
A well rounded critique of where we are today....... i predict we will be in the same position as the article highlights in 5 years time, this, and past govt's are very good at talking the talking, but we all know full well they don't have the legs for the walk.
I am pulling out and have my plan in place, i am ensuring my children purchase, but for those poor souls out there without parents who can financially help...... they will become the 21st century serfs.
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