Landlords are selling up in droves

[MNisMyGuiltyPleasure]

I am a landlord. Not full time but I have a couple of flats I let out. I have been for many years and bar twice, have always had good tenants. I am still friendly with a few of them who moved out to buy their own place, in fact. I go above and beyond what's expected of me because I want my tenants to enjoy living in my flats. However I am getting more and more concerned about the hike in costs related to letting properties. This has already started driving many, many LLs to sell up, with the result that the number of private rentals is dropping, driving rents up. And I'm serious thinking of selling up and finding somewhere else to invest my pension.

This morning another landlord shared this article www.property118.com/property118-founder-selling-his-best-property/ and this started a conversation about the risks of letting, which are only making more people get out of the lettings market.

So to all those people calling landlords greedy, and saying they shouldn't put rents up: if they are, it's likely they are because their costs related to letting are going up, and they need to cover themselves to meet additional costs should tenants not pay (cost of living or whatever other reason). My accountant last year told me to assume I will only make money from my flats when I come to sell them, and to budget to break even at best until then.

I get that shelter is something everyone should have, but please don't blame landlords for the hike in cost of private rents. Because if they all left the market (which may well happen at some point), the situation would be worse, not better, for tenants.

I am sure I will get a few people to flame me for the above, of course. If they do, I'd love to hear if they are renting, letting, or if they own their homes.

You aren't accidental landlords.

You made a business/investment choice that made the most financial sense for your money. In what way was that an accident?

Fetch the big electron microscope! We're on the hunt for the world's smallest violin!

I wish we could ban the use of “accidental” landlord. The only time I will accept it is if someone inherited a property with tenants in and hasn’t had a chance to deal with paperwork yet. Anything else is a conscious choice to be a landlord. Own it.

As for landlords needing more rights, that’s laughable. There are threads on here all the time with people concerned the landlord won’t do maintenance and people say well if you like the property don’t kick up a fuss or they will just evict you.

I don’t think landlords = evil but I think owning more than one property is a huge privilege when most people can’t afford one property, and moaning that it’s too hard or doesn’t make you enough money is distasteful.

My accountant last year told me to assume I will only make money from my flats when I come to sell them, and to budget to break even at best until then.

and what's the problem with that?? Property is a long term financial investment/savings plan, not a monthly salary top up. That's why people hate landlords. They make money each month by profiteering and then make a wedge at the end of it when they sell. My previous landlord bought my house for £180k on a mortgage. I paid his mortgage and a bit extra for a few years. He then remortgaged the house and took £100k or more out of it. I carried on covering his mortgage payments. Finally he sold it for £350k. I got a place to live for 11 years and he got £200k plus in profit. Which is fine, he was a good landlord and kept the rent low, he didn't try to profit from me monthly AS WELL as long term, but I remember when he changed letting agents and the new agent told him (whilst standing in the house, in my earshot) that he was undercharging and should put the rent up by £350 a month because he could. He could! I would have moved out but some mug would have paid. It's sick.

Agree @ChilliBandit I come across too many people whose houses are in a poor state of repair and they're afraid of being evicted, having the rent put up as soon as the LL is able to after the works, or just being evicted. An official complaint would also likely result in eviction. Or those who have requested or highlighted repairs and been refused or fobbed off.

 @crackofdoom

Hopefully this will lead to more affordable housing for first time buyers.

But there wouldn't be any private rentals without landlords.

@Daftasabroom but that would be a good thing surely?

Without private landlords the state would be forced to provide an alternative housing solution for renters

I'm of the same opinion

Unfortunately this.
I've had some fucking awful landlords. (Refused to repair things, lgnored issues that could be easily fixed when reported and actually went on to cause damage to the fabric of the building, trying to let a dirty property, demanding access during times I'm at work, then not showing, trying to hold on to deposit for very shakey reasons etc)
But I've also had some absolutely lovely landlords that we have pretty much allowed to have access anytime, and have actually improved their property for them.

If you're a great landlord, I'll be a great tenant. If you're shite, I won't even allow access unless it's at my convenience.

I think it's sad so many are selling up, but so many just aren't willing to accept that the profit is in the building itself, not the poor sod that's paying your mortgage.

I sold my flat to a BTL landlord years ago, he neglected it so much it still has the decor from when I moved out 11 years ago he sold it for nearly 100k less than when he put it on. In over 10 years Imagine if he'd actually maintained it? Shortsighted.

I think it's sad so many are selling up, but so many just aren't willing to accept that the profit is in the building itself, not the poor sod that's paying your mortgage.

It's surprising how many don't understand that when they're complaining of only breaking even on a month-by-month basis.

I'm selling up my one rental property. It's not worth the hassle nor the risk of having a problem tenant you can't get rid of anymore.

What incredibly useful and well thought-out input 🙄

Landlords selling up sounds like great news to me.

Like the way they provide high quality education, health care, public transport etc?

Eh. I can't say my heart bleeds.

We were landlords on a mortgage-free property. We didn't like it. We sold up. I don't expect anyone to be crying into their tea over that.

Well maybe if LL are selling up in droves the government can start buying the properties. That helps some way to solving the housing crisis where people are unable to rent due to astronomical rates, and LL are happy to have a property that’s not making them a profit off their hands.

Exactly, boohoo I have an asset and someone else is only paying the mortgage and not giving me extra on top of that.

I’ve got to remortgage my BTL later this year. I’m holding off to see how it stacks up when I see what the best rate is I can get but I am very close to selling and if the mortgage isn’t affordable I definitely will.

It is my former home, I lived in it for 12 years and it’s been rented for 10 and I wanted to pass it on to DD but it’s getting untenable now. I have a lovely tenant so it will be a huge blow for her too if I don’t renew her next tenancy and market it instead.

I’ve rented myself when relocating so I do see the tenants view too and always try to respond as a landlord how I wanted when I was a tenant. But I can’t operate at a loss and my own residential mortgage is my priority. If I sell the BTL I can clear 50% of our residential mortgage so it’s worth considering.

Hopefully the influx of properties onto the market will lower house prices and more people who were priced out of buying their own home by the price increases caused by the awful property investment "industry" will be able to afford to buy instead of rent now.

I am not sorry there will be fewer private landlords, not at all.

But they aren’t paying the mortgage- most BTL are interest only. The landlord still
owes the full mortgage at the end. The only gain is any increase in property value. So if there’s no profit on the rent there’s really very little motivation to do it.

When all the landlords are huge portfolios owned by internationals that genuinely don’t give a shit tenants really will have something to complain about.

My tenant had a small issue with something faulty this week. I had it replaced within 48hrs. If I was a commercial landlord they wouldn’t have even had a reply yet and would be waiting weeks for it to be resolved as it’s not a priority problem.

The government seem to despise landlords and discourage them at all costs, removing their right and barring many altogether with this EPC bullshit when most houses won’t move past a D without being knocked down.

But tenants have been screwed over more as they may now have proportionally more energy efficient houses, great, but any saving on bills has been sucked up by doubling rent cost. When the government sticks their short sighted oar in, there are no winners.

Plus the fact that when a tenant rings because x or y or z isn't working, you need to send someone out. And then it can turn out the tenant had done something like turning a spur off, or overloading the power circuit, or something else that was in fact user error and not an issue with the property. But, as a LL, what do you do? Say that if it happens again then they need to pay for the call out? And risk that if something does go wrong they don't tell you because they don't want to risk they have to pay? And then the issue gets worse? Of course you don't - you keep on paying. And this is the kind of stuff you can't check a tenant on before they move in. We had a tenant smash an 11th floor double glazed window in the kids bedroom. They said a bird flew into it....

Not if you want or need to rent.
It will be good for first time buyers but not everyone will be able to afford to buy.

That's your choice then! And the risk you take. You buy property (on an interest only mortgage!!) assuming it will increase in value over time. If it doesn't, 🤷🏼‍♀️ it still doesn't mean you should expect monthly profit as well as long term gain.