More pain for renters as landlords look to sell up

29 comments
  1. A lot of people are talking as though landlords can creates supply.

    They can’t. We need to build many, many more homes. Whether a small number of those homes are being lived in by renters or owner-occupiers is much less important in the scheme of things than the fact that we have an enormous shortage in every sector.

    Build, build, build. Then we won’t have to worry about what landlords want to do!

  2. The corporate companies will start moving in.

    Most renters in 10/15 years will be renting from private companies with set price increases build in and additional costs passed straight onto renters.

  3. Sooo.. according to this article the house disappears after the landlords sell out? Landlords don’t create supply, if they sell either an owner occupier moves in or a renter, and neither of those cases push up rent prices. The article is scaremongering hogwash

  4. *More pain for renters as landlords look to sell up*

    Those landlords will also feel the hard sting of CGT.

  5. This is affecting a friend of mine at the moment.

    She’s been paying £900 a month for the last 6 years. The landlord is good with repairs and she’s had a new kitchen during that time because the old one was getting a bit scruffy. He also waived some rent arrears during covid.

    The landlord’s mortgage fix is coming to an end next year, and the rate is looking likely to go from 1.8% to 5.5%. He’s been honest with her and said he could afford that if it was tax deductible, but it isn’t anymore.

    Understandably, he’s not willing to pay more in tax, expenses, and mortgage interest than he receives in rent. So he’s asked her to try and find somewhere else in the next 12 months so he can sell up.

    The trouble is, every comparable house in the area is now £1500, she’s been paying well under market because he never put the rent up. She doesn’t meet the affordability criteria.

    She doesn’t want to make his life difficult because he’s been good to her, but she’s between a rock and a hard place, she may have to wait for the courts to evict her.

    All those people saying that it’s good that landlords are selling up seem to ignore the fact that tenants can’t just magic up a deposit to buy.

    My friend has a couple of kids, money is tight, and her living situation is going to get drastically worse because of the changes that have been brought in.

  6. Landlords are selling up mostly because of higher interest rates that mean it’s no longer profitable for them to keep the property. While that might benefit a few first time buyers as the prices drop slightly, most (even if they have a deposit) will now be priced out by those same interest rates. You still need a bank to actually provide you a mortgage.

  7. Before you get excited, get ready for **super landlords**…

    [https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/buytolet/article-8913985/Corporate-landlords-muscle-rental-market-mean-market-tenants.html](https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/buytolet/article-8913985/Corporate-landlords-muscle-rental-market-mean-market-tenants.html)

    [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjkdyy9xgn3o](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjkdyy9xgn3o)

    [https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/04/john-lewis-plans-to-build-10000-rental-homes-on-its-land-waitrose](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jul/04/john-lewis-plans-to-build-10000-rental-homes-on-its-land-waitrose)

  8. They won’t be selling to first time buyers or normal people. They will sell to the banks and investment firms directly, we’ve already seen this happening. All that will happen now is it just cuts out the middle man and the illusion of ownership. In the future I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the monopolisation of the housing market by a few major companies and we will all be wishing for “local” landlords instead.

    Whatever happens to the housing market the likelihood of it leading to a net positive for young people is highly unlikely.

  9. This is an expected part of the market correcting following rate rises. Over leveraged landlords will sell up, house prices will fall, or stop rising. That’s a positive for those looking to buy, even with higher rates.

  10. What are the former landlords investing in now? If not property, what? The banks don’t give any interest, the stock market is volatile, businesses are struggling, and crypto is just stupid. If they become ‘shareholders’ they’re monsters all over again.

  11. More housing stock on the market and not in some monopoly playing landlords portfolio is a good thing for general availability.

    All we need then is for the financial institutions to remove some of the insane requirements for an affordable mortgage and finally we might get a housing market that is how it should be and NOT how the politicians want to force to a continental model of lifetime renting.

    I’m sure most people would much prefer to own a home (which appreciates in value) with a £700 mortgage instead of renting for £1250 and getting sweet FA at the end of it apart from losing your deposit.

  12. It’s hell out here. After some difficulty finding a place via estate agents, some old neighbours of mine were talking to the son of an elderly lady in their road, who said she unfortunately needed to go into care and he was considering renting her home out to cover some care costs. These lovely people immediately told him to consider me and vouched for me and I was in. This was August 2022.

    Unfortunately, she passed away in December, much sooner than anyone was expecting, and my lovely landlord called me amidst his grief to say his older brother had insisted the house is now to be sold. He is heartbroken because he wanted to hold onto his childhood home and was quite enjoying being a landlord, but he only has 50% of the say in it. I’m to be out by February.

    There is nothing left to rent in this area, even if there was a 3 bed now goes for minimum £1800pcm, and estate agents immediately rule me out (even if they can’t legally say so…) because I’m a single parent who relies on UC top ups to pay rent. Housing help maxes out at £897pcm for my area.

    So I will be a 32yo single parent that likely has to move back in with my parents, which means losing my business (I’m a celebration/wedding cake maker) because I can’t use their kitchen for it, not to mention trying to squeeze my two kids in too.

    I know not everyone has a fallback like that and I suppose I should be grateful, but I’m still absolutely gutted.

  13. Fewer landlords increases housing supply not decreases it. Hope some of these parasites consider getting a proper job and contributing something to the economy.

  14. No reason for anyone to own more than two houses. The solution to the problem is so simple. Yet would any government ever have the balls to pass such a law? The Conservative Business…sorry, Conservative *Party* certainly wouldn’t. What percentage of Tory members are not also landlords? Less than 10%, surely.

  15. I see this as a good thing, the less small landlords the better, I prefer to rent from a dedicated company and at the same time it will free up properties for people who actually want to live there.

  16. My next door neighbour has to move and it sucks. She’s lovely. The owner of the house was struggling to sell with a tennent in situ quickly so he’s just getting them to leave and selling it empty. I’m sad, she’s cool and been there forever.

  17. Most of these landlords won’t want to sell at a loss though. I hope those properties remain unsold at whatever ridiculous valuations they come up with and they’re forced to sell lower.

  18. my last landlord, where i stayed for 9 years, was amazing, never put the rent up in that time, fixed everything quickly and didn’t come for the rent every month, sometimes three months late!

    ​

    like everything in life, some good some bad.

  19. Bad time to be a single male, even with physical or mental health problems. Even if you’re Section 21ed you’re not even getting on the council housing or housing association lists.

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