Small landlords selling off isn't a great news after all

Strongly suspect they've ended up in some slum tenancy with a dodgy landlord.

I think you're right and I imagine the new laws have been welcomed by dodgy slum landlords. Everybody knows loads of renters are unable to buy and there's a social housing shortage. Dodgy landlords don't care about regulations though and they know many renters have no alternative.

Wrt big corporates. My colleague is struggling to find somewhere partly because the minimum income asked for by landlords is above his salary. Maybe I'm wrong but I doubt the big corporates will lower the threshold?

We have just one rental, a 2 bed m’ette with a little garden. It was a truly disgusting hovel when we bought it - we spent a lot to make it somewhere we’d be very happy to live ourselves, so no cheapest old kitchen and carpets. We’ve always had very good tenants and the rent is now very low for the type and area.

But I’m thinking of selling up once current tenants leave (I wouldn’t give them notice) largely because dh and I are getting on a bit and I dread the thought of any more major maintenance issues, like a former major bathroom leak - not the money so much as all the hassle. We’ve always fixed anything very promptly.
IMO it’s not the type of property to attract corporate investors, though - more likely to go to FTBs.

People still pretending to themselves that Big Corp is going to bail them out of their bad BTL decisions I see? Big corporations don"t want random BTL flats in AnyTown, the banks just pretended those flats were going to be a goldmine so people would take the loans. If Big Corp was going to do rental in the UK they would do a deal with their mates the Big Developers who are seeing new-build sales down by 60%, so many empty units! Big Corp can see the political winds change though, and immigration down by about two thirds, they didn"t get to be Big Corp by being stupid!

Pie in the sky! another lie, to go along side Dentistry & Fixing UK roads.

Housing Associations/Councils cannot afford to buy these properties once built or commission new ones.

Why? because the money they have got is being spent on upgrading existing stock to the new EPC reg's of a C and further changes coming down the track, such as ASHP and Solar.

For temporary eg 6-9months etc will people just move to Airbnb and is that going to be legal?

What is a little crazy is that some people actually just need to rent their house or flat out temporarily eg move abroad for a few years, or purchase a downside property years in advance or a property for a kid which previously would have been rented out and given someone somewhere to live. That whole segment is now removed. I think it is stupid because there should be a carve out for temporary renting and should be in the price. As long as people are honest and upfront about it it can work well. Lots of people want to rent temporarily before buying in a new location too and this kind of thing completely removes that option for both sides as landlords chicken out of doing that.

There aren’t enough builders and other trades and building supplies are too expensive. And finance is expensive on top of that.

Nrft but the Renters Rights bill is not actually new. It was a Tory bill in the last Gov, and had progressed quite far through governance.
The new Gov just re badged it, but it’s basically the same. It’s was obviously going to have a negative knock on affect to the tenants.
WTF happened to all these low cost houses Labour were going to build anyway??

As far as I understand it, in places like Germany they have cheapish rents, vast tenant protection, large companies in it for decent long term returns which are externally financed on a portfolio basis. People who want to invest in property can invest via buying company shares. Tenants who pay reasonable market rents and look after the property should never be evicted. However, for large companies that rely on external finance, rents do have to go up in line with lending risk and external finance costs aka interest rates. Some hedging can be done but not much. Business is never in it without a reasonable long term return as money can work harder elsewhere. As cash in bank currently yields 4 per cent plus that will be the equivalent cost of renting (and for individual landlords there are taxes and penalties on top- taxed at highest marginal tax rate). In uni towns it may still pay to be a landlord but even there kids are rethinking uni cost benefit en masse so there will be an exodus for risk averse landlords. I think the transition phase could be painful to large corporate landlord, but equally immigration is currently down so it might end up all ok. Lots of demographic changes too with young people moving back home can translate to les demand as well.

Well according to a poster above, rents are cheaper and landlords are without tenants, it should be easy for you to find something different, have you looked?

Not true, well not for me.

A close relative was evicted, she'd been there for 21years, LL was always very reasonable and rent was low.
She sold only due to changes coming along.

My relative suffered so much stress her hair started falling out, she couldn't afford the "market rent" and wasn't able to get any council help.

So i bought her a house, charge below market and will never evict, to see her fall aprt like this was awful.
i never intended to be a LL as i don't agree with it but i had no alternative... the up coming changes are stupid and ill thought out.

People like you have no clue as to the impact of eviction on people, none at all, sure there will be properties but for many cheaper housing doesn't help them as they can't get a mortgage ever, too old, low wages etc.

Watch rents rocket as mortgage costs going up again.

TBH from direct observation this isn't even true news. I live on a street in London which for the last 20 years has been predominantly rented out by buy to let landlords- some HMO, some not.
Not one of these has gone on the market since the tax change- mattresses and sofas are dumped on the street and replaced every 3-6 months just the same as before.
As for GB News's claim that rents are crashing, it is just laughable here-maybe in Clacton, but I doubt it.
It is just business as usual and most buy to let landlords have absorbed the costs into their rents-which have jumped up in the last year.

Yeah because all those slum and "accidental" landlords really gave so much of a shit about their tenants didnt they?

I'd rather pay rent to a company than a person. At least a company creates jobs.
Private landlords create nothing except a cycle of inherited wealth

I hope you enjoy Blackrock or some other faceless corporation being your landlord.

There are no unintended consequences to this legislation. It is designed to force out small scale property owners, and drive them out of owning physical assets, and replace them with mega corporations who will snap up these properties and out bid potential first time buyers.

Nothing will get better for renters, or those wanting to get on the property ladder.

Meanwhile, property taxes and high interest rates will do over existing home owners.

And don't forget, if your council tax rises keep compounding above wage rises, then its only a couple of decades before council tax hits £20000 per year for some houses.

You will own nothing and you will be happy indeed.

Why do people automatically think ‘big investment company’ = terrible?

What these companies want is reliable monthly income from tenants for minimum fuss. So they don’t want high tenant turnover because that’s just faff to them. They don’t want disputes. They want to protect the integrity of their building and have the funds to pay for improvements. They want to keep tenant happy! They’re not going to evict you for any reason other than you’re annoying other tenants.

Look at all of the happy lifetime renters in the continent. These rent from big investment companies and are very happy about it. They have stability for life. Why is that a bad thing?

I'm so happy its coming in. I don't have the energy anymore to fight my letting agent / landlord to deal with damp and mould.

I just want out of this hellhole property.

My parent's have been landlords for 30 years, only the one BTL property. Had the same tenants in it for the last 15 years. Always charged below market rent, and never increased it during the last tenancy, so the rent was less than half current market rents for the area. The mortgage was paid off years ago, and the low rent still covered all the other overheads. Tenant was good, fairly easy going, low stress, generally looked after the place. But my parents have decided to evict them and sell up. Too much bureaucracy and overheads etc coming in (local authority is now requiring licensing for all rental properties, at a hefty cost).

This is the reality - all the 'legacy' cheaper tenancies are at risk, landlords cost go up, so rents will go up. Driving out the small time independent landlords who have low overheads and typically offer lower rents, meanwhile big foreign investment funds are buying up UK housing stock as fast as they can. And they are profit driven, so rents will be top whack.

My parent's tenants have now moved out, quite upset that they're in a worse property, with a higher rent. No idea how they've managed that even, since they wouldn't pass most landlords affordability checks, and never even asked my parent's for a reference (which would have been good, so no reason not ask if they needed one). Strongly suspect they've ended up in some slum tenancy with a dodgy landlord.

Meanwhile the house has sold (STC) and BTL investors were fighting over it, private purchasers couldn't or wouldn't compete. I expect the next tenant in that house will be paying twice as much.

Lose lose all round, except for the revenue, since there's going to be a substantial cgt bill.

Anyone who thinks this incoming legislation is going to be good for renters is deluded.

There’s nothing remotely socialist about the present-day Labour Party! Blair put an end to that in the 1990s.

But your comment about kulaks has made me wonder. Did Blair and his followers manage to not only expunge all the good of socialism, but keep the bad bits?

Even if so, I can’t see any way in which huge corporations are an improvement on small landlords, competently regulated.

It will just mean the housing market will follow all our privatised utilities into ownership by multinationals that don’t give a damn about our laws and regulations, much less the people who have to use their ‘services’.

I agree.
Plus it seems likely that Interest rates could go up, which will further push prices down.

Most renters served notice aren't looking for 'high end' properties in London.

I dont believe it because its not what I see on the ground with my service user group, scrabbling for rentals, lists as long as your arm for landlords/rental companies to pick who they want

Perhaps that will change but Im not seeing that at the moment, south east.

There has been years of brainwashing - Not enough houses etc. When reality hits a lot of people won"t believe it, I think the main driver here is the very large drop in numbers coming to the UK for work/study, and a whole generation that basically live with their parents so older folk can keep pretending their bungalow is worth a small lottery win.

Im very surprised to read that,

So surprised that Im inclined not to believe it but I suppose it must be true.

@HamJam1 I'm not a landlord. I just happen to know one of the many renters affected by this. In the long term, a move like this that expands access to property ownership should be celebrated. What about all the renters including my colleague who need a home now? Loads of people aren't in a position to buy. @LeanToWhatToDo is right

I guess neither of you have heard that mortgage rates are going up? People can't get mortgages as easily as you seem to think. I am lucky that my tenant who has been really wonderful (in comparison to the nightmare family beforehand) doesn't want to own property since divorcing, but young families are being pushed further away from home ownership by the mortgage rates, not by landlords, who often own outright.