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

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/historic-renters-rights-act-becomes-law

I suspect that going forward there will be far less people going to "Uni", the future might be more about practical job training and living with parents for longer?

"If I had 500k cash to invest no way would I put it in property"

Very very good advice but most people borrowed money to get into BTL, they didn"t have 500k, that is why BTL took off, it was more nearly free debt that people could access, of course large numbers of people lapped it up thinking any property investment was a one way bet.

If I had 500k cash to invest no way would I put it in property. Mix of cash bonds and bonds, lower risk and higher risk equity instead. Far less work, more certainty, better returns. That is partly why small time landlords are selling up as well. It’s unpaid extra work taxed and regulated through the roof. Same picture with small house builders. The result is more pricy housing not less. The costs of overtaxation and overregulation always get passed on to the end consumer.
The State cannot afford a massive social housing build project so instead they decide to come up with screw people policies that make the situation worse. You can see these anomalies across various sectors now. The demographics have changed (far more smaller households, ageing population) and the politicians keep harping back to old tricks and the playbook that doesn’t work. Nobody is coming up with any proper solutions nor telling the truth.

The asset which you take all the risk and maintenance for and no guarantee it'll sell for a higher price. In this market, it is very uncertain. Potential for loosing tens of £1,000's. Even more. Something you would do, do you think? Can you afford it? But you expect others to do it in order to provide housing for others?

Better described as paying a small part of your mortgage for the asset you will eventually own? Unless you are a landlord rather than just a BTL landlord.

Our local uni can just about supply 1st years with accommodation. After that it’s BTL landlords. And it’s desperate. Students are desperate. Rents are stratospheric. All because the Scottish government decided to introduce rent controls so loads of BTL landlords left the market. Scotland proving to everyone that rent controls are still a disaster.

A lot of Uni"s run their own accommodation now.

Do you think it’s all of the landlords that are stopping you buying though? Who else provides students with somewhere to rent?

Yes, the estate agents actively encourage this, even when you're happy with your tenant and don't want to evict them. Sometimes it's necessary if eg you're operating at a loss.

There have been a number of stories (some high profile) of landlord serving notice on tenants simply to relist the property at a much higher rent.

" Rents are well above average thanks in part to its fast train line to London, which makes it attractive to affluent City commuters."

So why would you sell your rental to the council?

Are the council paying over market value, meaning commercial property crisis part two and more councils going bust?

This has happened in other councils and it usually has a negative effect on prices for surrounding property.

Brighton council is buying houses from landlords.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/26/right-to-buy-reverse-brighton-tackling-social-housing-crisis

Can"t see big corporations being interested in the sorts of random BTL that people were snapping up when the BTL craze was in full swing, many landlords will struggle to sell now as FTB are paying more for their mortgage debt and people don`t want to be landlords any more!

Agree. Also, social housing providers have been exempt from MEES although I think this is changing.

All homes, whether rented or owned should be subject to same requirements. In a healthy rental market, tenants would vote with their feet. That’s what used to happen.

I think if you get evicted and refuse to leave but continue paying rent you wait for the bailiffs to turf you out so the council can help, not refuse to pay rent.

I also agree that large commercial landlords would probably want whole buildings primarily, that can be managed more cost effectively. So more of a build to rent ethos from the get go, not buying up ex small time landlord houses and flats dotted around, unless it is already a large portfolio in a particular area, of a certain type.
Housing should be secure and fairly priced and I do agree that landlords should be in it long term and never evicting tenants who pay on time and look after the property. A fair compromise might have been to exclude landlords with just 1 or 2 properties from extra regulation? But to make them disclose their status when advertising property to rent. So renters can decide what type of landlord to go with. When we rented when young, we always chose a small time personable landlord who we had a good relationship with. Much preferred that format.

I would understand the situation if the same rules applied to owners as regards EPC requirements, annual gas safety checks, electrical certificates etc.
However, if the State insists on lots of extra regulation on the rental market but not the owner market, then essentially the renters bear the cost of that extra regulation. So they have to pay to be “protected” themselves. As it is already more expensive to rent, it is not really fair on them to have to bear these upfront costs. Landlords will always pass the costs on. Only rich people can afford to put up the capital expenditure required to make a house more energy efficient, for example. Every time you change your windows, install solar panels etc as an owner you know you won’t necessarily get the full cost back.
Poorer owners have to pay higher energy costs over a long time period instead. It is absurd to pass these costs on to tenants, especially if there is already a housing shortage and rental crisis.

Being greedy? I can’t think of many people who wouldn’t take the 10k higher offer. Would you?

I would think that not paying rent on purpose is making yourself intentionally homes and councils won't help?

Also the council housing department where I live are actually telling tenants to stop paying rent and wait for the bailiffs because unless that happens they can't get any kind of emergency council accommodation. Obviously this saves the council's and government to provide housing. Just use and abuse the private landlords.

Good for you, exactly what we did, far too much stress. We sold to an owner occupier , and had bought from an owner occupier in the first place, 10 years previously. But after 10 years of stress and 3 sets of troublesome tenants we stopped providing for renters. Such a happy day.

Thanks. Totally minimal cost then. Do you happen to know a good place on the internet to research business accounts?

Almost a Ponzi scheme really?

A few business banks package such software for free for their business account customers. Some simple software can be as little as a tenner per month. So it's a pretty insignificant cost.