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.

It's very convenient to blame small time landlords but the real problems are :

Wages not keeping up with house price rises or anything else so that those who work and want to buy find themselves priced out or borrowing ridiculous sums.
Government keeping altering retirement age so people buy rental properties to suppliment crap personal or work pensions.
People just give up trying to save a deposit to buy as the rules are so strict that even if they have been paying more in rent than a mortgage they still can't get on the ladder so they understandably get on with their lives having dc and holidays etc thus making it even more impossible.
Bank of mum and dad and grandma and grandpa hasn't helped, gifting their own dc/gc huge deposits. Despite getting a massive slating on here some of the boomers have been extremely generous to their offspring.
This just didn't happen for the majority years ago, even for well off middle classes because houses were more affordable. It creates the biggest divide of all in my opinion.

Not what I see here. Properties are still being bought up by landlords.

This thread is just a lobbying thread for landlords so they can make more money.

Very much in agreement with @TheWayTheLightFalls

Also TBH, I don't blame most landlords for issues, most of whom manage only one or two properties - but I do think it was foolish to allow a system to develop whereby the market was has become so depedent on small LLs, unlike most of the continent where properties are owned by large investors. Because that means people just don't stable homes - not because most of these landlords are greedy and venal, but because sooner or later they need to sell up. Not because they want to buy a new Ferrari, but because they're retiring, they need a bigger home for their family, the want to give deposit money to their kids or some other life circumstances change. Or, as OP says, because costs and legislation are too much for them to deal with on top of the day job. But that means people losing out on homes all the time and have the cost and disruption of moving - whereas if you have a property managed by a large business, generally you can live there are long as you want.

It's good more institutionally-owned 'Build to rent' homes are being created, but at the moment they are all eye-wateringly expensive. We need to see affordable BTR.

I say this also as former LL myself (didn't plan to be one, but had to move out of my first place and let it)

What do you think happens to the property when the landlord sells it? It doesn't disappear into thin air 🙄

The number of homes is unaffected by the number of landlords in the market, it's simply a change in ownership.

I'm not really sure what you are trying to achive here. It doesn't really matter what your reasons or motivations are; of course anyone who is told they're going to lose their home is going to feel upset and angry. Same as anyone who has been told their job is no longer there.

It has the most impact on a tenant or an employee and it's insensitive and cheeky of a landlord or employer to expect any sympathy or trying to understand where they are coming from!

Scotland is definitely a bit ahead of England with tenants rights etc - no-fault eviction bans, a renter/LL tribunal system & the Repairing Standard, where properties must be a decent standard.

My Facebook feed is full of posts of people literally begging for accommodation. Students could not take up their places at university as no-one will rent to them now.

Plenty people want to rent. It suits their lifestyle eg junior doctors here for a 6 month rotation, people like me who could not get a mortgage, those here for a temporary contract.

Landlords with 1 or 2 properties will never earn enough to be professional landlords, it's always going to be an expensive side hustle. Any real gains from this type of property investment are from capital gains, with the rental income to try to cover the costs whilst waiting on the market to rise. If this type of landlord are selling up it's likely to be to cash out.

I was a landlord for many years, I bought a flat when I was single and when I moved in with now DH I rented it out instead of sell it in case anything happened. Had a wonderful tenant in there for many years- I didn't raise the rent and made sure to fix any issues promptly. I have to say when she gave notice as she had managed to have an offer accepted on a place to buy I knew I was going to sell rather then rent again due to all the changes. Made a tidy profit though and they were leaving anyway so didn't have to evict anyone, happy days.

Plenty people want to rent. It suits their lifestyle eg junior doctors here for a 6 month rotation, people like me who could not get a mortgage, those here for a temporary contract.

I do agree that there is a market for this kind of housing.

Cue all the landlords insisting they are providing a public service to people who’d be homeless without them.

But they are 🤷🏻‍♀️

Virtually every rental property I have ever lived in or visited has been in a state which nobody would tolerate in their own home, with landlords unresponsive to issues, raking in hundreds or thousands of pounds a month for doing practically nothing. Maybe the landlords on Mumsnet are all models of good service to tenants but I can't say that's true of most in real life. Other businesses wouldn't get away with treating their customers so badly.

Landlords all deserve us to get out and clap on the streets because they are so selfless.

The loudest voices on forums seem to hate landlords, so they should be happy that properties will be released for sale.

The bit they haven't realised is that they still won't be able to buy one for one reason or another. The moaning renters always blame everyone but themselves rather than looking at themselves.

Savers have been disincentivised by low rates so where do they put their money? Many chose the property market as a safe harbour for the long term, rather than gains from rental income which are generally pretty low.

I don’t think property actually does any better as an investment than the stock market, once you take into account costs, so unless you own outright it isn’t a good idea.

What we need is lots more affordable housing so it’s cheaper to buy (which will mean a redrawing of the green belt legislation) plus much more public housing for those who will never be able to buy. The place for private landlords should be minimal - we started building public housing in the first place because private renting just isn’t a good solution in most circumstances.

More housing would see a fall in properly prices of course, but because people would be much more mobile, there’s good evidence GDP would go up.

Anyway OP I would sell up and invest in something else.

That’s because it’s ridiculously expensive to buy and we don’t have enough public housing. That is not the fault of renters.

Nor landlords..........

I know someone with over 70 rental properties and he has a manager for them so doesn't work. Drives a 80k BMW spends time socialising and at the gym and has just had a house built for himself to a luxury spec without selling his previous house.

Yes it is a free market I get that but this does not sit right with me - I just don't agree that houses should be used like this when so many are homeless or struggling. Idealist I know.

I’ve been a tenant because I WANTED to rent - I wanted to check I was happy with an area before I bought. There are times when people either want or need to rent - if no-one is letting a property, there nothing to rent.

That said, some landlords are fucking awful. From the “all this rent is mine and I don’t want to spend any on maintenance” hobby BTLer to the “professional”landlords who think rules don’t apply to them (“It’s MY property and I’ll go into it when I want!”), tenants are always at the mercy of their whims. Good landlords exist but they are few and far between.

I think the answer is licensing landlords and much harsher enforcement of tenants’ rights - too many black marks and the landlord loses their licence to operate. Tenants should only be evicted in a very strict set of circumstances, including non-payment of rent, anti-social behaviour and the owner wanting the property back to live in themselves or sell. In return, it should be much easier to evict - this situation of going to Court because the councils have told the tenants not to leave, and waiting 6 months for a hearing date, is ridiculous.

Renting would be fine

• if you had security in what is your home, and the very foundation of your day-to-day life. At present the system allows them to evict people on a whim, with no reason given whatsoever through the Section 21 process; you cannot oppose a correctly issued Section 21 in court. The lack of security is corrosive to mental health.
• if landlords did do repairs when necessary, quickly and efficiently, and there was more enforcement against slumlords. There is a special place in hell reserved for those who, like my last landlord, paint over the damp just before putting a property on the market and then lock the tenant into a contract to live with inescapable mould on the walls and their belongings being destroyed by it.
• if landlords didn't impose restrictions on how you live your life - for instance, many landlords don't allow children - which is entirely legal (and if you have a baby while living there, they can issue a Section 21 eviction notice). Likewise having pets. (Obviously we're not talking here about wanton damage or antisocial behaviour towards the neighbours).

I was a tenant until last year and am now a live-in landlord as I rent out my spare room, for context.

Landlords seem to want everything their own way - to make money every month without lifting a finger, to have their entire mortgage paid, have almost zero costs (no repairs if they can possibly avoid it, let alone improvements, and the current whining about tax returns), eventually own a property outright, and then at the point of selling get the increased property value on top. There's a great deal of greed going on.

Some landlords are decent enough, to be fair. Maybe not many, but there are some out there. It's when they start thinking they're the boss or have the upper hand in the relationship with a tenant that problems can ensue and unfortunately, this seems quite a common attitude.

I'm in social housing now, but I always gave notice in 18 years of private renting. It was never the other way around.

I have not found this to be the case in Edinburgh. Single glazed windows, electric heaters...and extortionate rents

Property should either belong to an individual /family, and the rest be portfolio for Local authorities to rent out. Not privately owned for private gain. It just builds profit and people buy more property. It never ends.

That happened to me, outbidding by 50k every time that I couldn’t keep up with. Ended up grossly overpaying, so I’d advise her to draw a line and stick to it. Patience is key (of which I had none after already waiting years to find something pre COVID).

Personally I would ban buy to let mortgages of anything above 30% mortgage. 'Unless it's the family home that is being kept and 'has' to become a buy to let mortgage' I would also entice the pension funds and big players with huge tax breaks provided that they let at 60% of the market rate or less and are not allowed to sell for 10 years.

There can be some great individual landlords often when it's just 1 house and they are accidental landlords , we've had some excellent ones who were renting the former family home- but there are some who really are dreadful- and often have multiple places- just see it as a cash cow.