Will a no fault eviction ban mean less properties available to rent?

[meateatingveggie]

Just that really. While it may stop unscrupulous landlords will it mean many decide not to be landlords at all and therefore fewer properties available?

We issued a section 21 to our tenants within a week of the news that it was going to be banned (it's been talked about as a possibility for a long time but clearly this time the government meant it)

So yes, OP - it absolutely does mean some landlords will choose to sell - especially since this is the latest in a long line of measures that make it harder to let property.

Pity really - we repaired issues within hours or days (depending on urgency) of them being reported and hadn't increased the rent in 7 years... I'd wager we were one of the better landlords out there. Still scum according to most of MN though...

Some of the responses on this thread are so out of touch they'd be funny if they weren't so ridiculous 🙄

"Oh landlords selling up will help people get on the property ladder" NO IT WON'T 😂😂 the 2 bed bed flat I'm currently renting is worth circa 210k, I earn 32k on what planet am I going to get a mortgage on that 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

The scaremongering is suggesting all landlords are selling and all tenants will be homeless. That’s fantasy.

That is not how markets work. But for the first time in 25 years a correction in house prices is coming.

It’s not worth £210k !

This proposal is a non-starter. LL will just say they're going to sell. Move the tenant out and then never agree a sale, thus getting the property back again.

It will mean less properties of course. People are still living in properties on old Rent Act tenancies that can’t be removed. Landlords often then sell these tenancies on to pension and investment firms who are basically waiting out the tenant dying so they can sell the house at a market rate.

It is going to make the lack of available houses for rental even worse, you can’t rent a house in my small South West city at all. I think there are about 11 houses available for rent at the moment but hundreds looking.

It is NOT scaremongering. I know so many people desperate for places to rent mainly young people just starting out in London who cannot find anywhere at all to live.

Landlord after landlord is selling up - because it's just not possible anymore. There's no money in it at all but even more than that you're at risk of falling foul of the laws or not being able to get your house back or of being caught for tens of thousands if a tenant defaults and you can't evict.

Only the corporates can do it. That'll be the future.

So who are the landlords selling to?

Think it through.

There's plenty of money left in being a LL as long as you do it properly.

They're not selling to FTB that's for sure.

People who’ve inherited, people who have parents who can lend them deposits, people who are in a couple, people who are buying for student DC, foreign investors.

They’re not going to be exclusively selling to the people who are currently stuck in the rent trap, or single people on universal credit etc.

It’s ideological to argue there will be a needed price correction; perhaps at some point there will be, but there will be many casualties in renting long before that.

We didn’t become a LL to make money (as many don’t)… but genuinely curious what you mean by this statement.

Im a LL. It will make zero difference to me. We have long term tenants. One set has been there for 10 years, one for 7 years, one house has relatively new tenants who are just under 2 years.

Our tenants are all great, pay their rent on time, let us know of any problems before they become big issues, look after the house, etc. They have had occasional small rent increases but now pay way below market rates. However, we really don't want to price families out of their homes and its easier for us to have great hassle free tenants. If any of them do move out then we'll rent them out at somewhere near the current market rates.

We're unlikely to want to sell the properties. In the unlikely event they do stop paying rent we wouldn't use a no fault eviction.

So I'm quite meh about this change.

Corporates. Massive corporates, headed up by the likes of Jacob Reece Mogg. It’s a deliberate drive by already wealthy large landowners to hoover up properties currently owned by small landlords. When there are only one or two local landlords in any locality, they’ll have an effective monopoly. THEN you’ll see the race to the bottom begin. Traditionally, large wealthy landowners have not exactly been sympathetic to peasants, have they?

It’s already happening. The rules are very clearly weighted in favour of larger portfolios. The depression in property prices is a huge benefit for cash buyers, and no one else will be able to afford credit.

Also, property isn’t a pure supply and demand market. It depends on the availability, and cost of credit. Cash buyers are not a majority. So it’s not just plain supply and demand. Also during and shortly after the pandemic, it’s estimated that rental stocks fell by 50%, causing a huge rental crisis. Did you notice a drop in housing prices at all? No, because there wasn’t one. Buy to lets are not influencing property prices. But they are scapegoated for renters problems, in order to distract from the corporate housing hoover. This is not going to go well for renters, but they are too busy blaming small landlords to notice. In reality, small landlords holding out against corporate landlords are all that stands between renters and a return to slum landlords. There is nothing good for non-millionaires happening here.

I work in this field and the vast majority of families who become homeless are made so because of a section 21 , no reason at all.

If you're a landlord, surely you only evict for the reasons allowed? Moving in, selling (with sensible safeguards so you can't just say you plan to) or not paying rent ?

Many tenants get evicted with section 21s because they ask for something to be fixed !

I imagine they'll put a clause in saying you can't rent it out again for 6 months or so

But landlords will still be able to evict due to rent arrears? So what's the problem?

@lickenchugget

But most of the people you mention would need to rent if they weren't buying so it doesn't make any difference. This idea that landlords somehow create housing is ridiculous

And market value will go down if there’s a glut of them on the market all at once.

About fifty percent of rental properties were sold in the post pandemic boom. It had no downward effect on prices at all. That’s why we HAVE a rental crisis.

House prices are not a supply and demand market. They are mostly bought on credit, and prices depend on the price and availability of credit. ie interest rates and employment, mainly. Low interest rates, profligate lending and high employment drove them up, massively. And high interest rates, lower employment and tighter lending criteria (whether linked to the first two, or top of it) will drive them down. Rentals don’t influence it much at all, otherwise we’d have seen a drop when so many landlords sold up.

No-one has suggested that.

What people are correctly saying is that some landlords will choose to sell, as being a landlord will become less appealing. This will have the effect of increasing the rents that the remaining landlords can charge, and the increased risks that they now face will mean that they do of course need to charge more to make up for it.

I can’t see that the effect on house prices will be much, so the net effect is quite likely to be to make it harder for tenants.

I have a small rental property. £500 a month for a two bed mid terrace. Cost me an inheritance of of around £120k and will go onto my kids. About 5% return a year on having that money tied up before tax and expenses. (So say 4% return). If interest rates on an account paid 5% I'd have not bothered. My tenants can't afford to buy, nor will they ever probably, nor can they afford the current market rates locally. If interest rates go up and yields increase in investments then let's will be sold. Keeping interest on savings at fuck all for years and years is why so many people put their savings into houses.

Eeksteek - spot on. That's exactly what I think.

It's only replicating what already happens in Scotland though? Was there a mass sell off when they introduced the rules there?

How can anyone support a law that means an owner of a item cannot get back that item when it suits them. Landlords are not charities or there to provide housing that the government can't be bothered to. Why are they hated for the very valuable service they provide. The laws surrounding letting are onerous and yet still the devious and criminal get away with it and the law abiding get penalised even more.