Emergency rent freeze laws passed !!??

[happyfishcoco]

Emergency rent freeze laws passed in Scotland
and Welsh maybe follow.

YABU = vote agree to rent freeze
YANBU = vote for not agree to rent freeze

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-63164850.amp

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-63131075.amp

She's tried selling it with tenants in situ and she can't get any buyers at all, regardless of the price. So now she is evicting them.

@MissFranKubelik - there's about to be regulation of short term lets too - so many Airbnb's will go as well.

So where are all these people going to live when LL's sell up & there's no adequate provision for students, the vulnerable/low incomes who don't meet social housing criteria?

Who cares, @ProseccoOnIce ? Who cares if people can't find anywhere to live. All that matters is that those nasty, grabby, parasitic landlords don't make a penny. 🙄

And of course if they don’t make any money they don’t pay any taxes either so there’s another dent in the public purse.

I don't understand the venom directed at landlords. It seems there is still such a strange stigma associated with renting in the UK and therefore tenants are seen as the 'victims' of landlords.

For very many people in many different circumstances, renting can be preferable to owning a property. You don't have to commit to a place for a long time, you don't have to pay for maintenance of the property and you don't take any of the risk of the house price falls or interest rates rise. It seems many people assume that property only increases in value, but this isn't always the case and some areas still haven't properly recovered from the 2008 crash despite the media leading everyone to believe that landlords are benefitting from sky high property prices.

Landlords offer a service to tenants like many other businesses. They will almost definitely experience an increase in costs as mortgage rates rise and inflation causes things like house maintenance and repairs to rise. Are those who suggest a rent freeze suggesting all businesses should freeze the price they charge their customers? Are they aware of what has happened in other markets around the world where rent regulation has been introduced (e.g. Ireland)? Prospective tenants are certainly not better off in these places and the queues for housing are quite literally around the block.

ProseccoOnIce hopefully the buytolets being sold will go to people who want to live in them and then there would be less pressure on the rental market. I do think something extreme has to happen to end the renting hell so many people are trapped in. If there was mass homelessness the government would be forced to intervene. At the moment the young are trapped into paying someone else’s mortagage for poor accommodation.

Only if people can afford to buy them, and I don't mean can get the mortgage, but have the deposit, can afford regular repairs etc. There's loads and loads of people who want to rent rather than buy, and simply not enough rentals to allow it, even if those who wanted to buy did so.

But @headstone for lots of people it's not "renting hell". When I was at uni I didn't want to own a property. When I had my first job in a strange city and was on a graduate scheme which moved me every 6 months property ownership wasn't an option. When we decided to sell at one end of the country and move back to Scotland we wanted to rent for 6 months to get the choice of area to buy in absolutely right. There are lots of reasons why people rent and not everyone who is renting wishes they weren't.

Like I said, sledgehammer to crack a nut.

For me, the "extreme" thing that needs to happen is ending 'right to buy' nd reversing it - social landlords buying up properties, ideally all the currently tenanted ones where people are being evicted for sale to at least start with. But social landlords and councils don't have the money for that, so we also need a steep rise in tax.

I'd call being unable to find a rental property due to 30+ people per property, being rental hell whether you want to rent or not. I've very happily rented for large parts of my adult life, but wouldn't want to now, its impossible to find one.

Contrary to popular opinion, most landlords don't make huge profits from their properties, the investment is in the capital increase of the property. Once you've deducted mortgage, any management fees, and regular maintenance and repairs there is very little profit left

The tenant is paying off the mortgage with the rent though so the profit is having a mortgage free home after term that can be sold for a lump sum or continue to be rented with all the proceeds going to the landlord. I beg to differ that that landlords don't make huge profits for virtually zero effort.

Mortgage increases should be taken into account before committing to the investment surely?

As a landlord who rents my house out 20% below the market rate I'm going read up on this with I Teresa. Foes the freeze occur at the market rate or what rent you currently set?

Depending on how long the freeze lasts for I can't see this working out if say your rent no longer covers your expenses.

I only rent out the one house and in turn rent in very very expensive part of the world that I can't offord to live in ( for work). I'm waiting to see if the new epc ratings become compulsory because I can't get my house above a D without solar panels or a heat pump.

Quite a few landlords will sell up over the next few years, presumably the gap will be filled by large companies or overseas landlords. Maybe that is the best, who knows, we shall see.

My bottom line is the house staying self sufficient and when is doesn't I'm out. So meh, but if it means I need to up my rent to near market value to protect it from a long term freeze below market value as it is now, that's not going to benefit anyone. I doubt my tennants can offord a rise right now. More to read up on.

What I don't like is these clangers being dropped out of the blue, like no evictions during covid ( didn't effect us) but increasingly its not what I signed up to 18 years ago. Long tennacy but overall if they left I would run screaming for the hills to get out of being a landlord. The only way I can do that right now is to evict. I'm too soft for that.

I was going to say this too. Landlords will just put their properties up for sale, which then causes more problems for renters.

@MintJulia If a BTL mortgage is usually a 70% mortgage, why isn’t the landlord able to pay their mortgage if the rent doesn’t go up?
what is this unaffordable mortgage that was taken out by the landlord? Is it the time it would take to repay the mortgage? Why do they want the tenant to pay for them to have an asset at the end of it even faster than a reasonable business person would be able to afford it?

what is your opinion on pay rises not being aligned with inflation/interest rates, etc, so that people aren’t able to afford the mortgages they have on their homes, and risk repossession/homelessness?

This I agree with, what if young professionals (or other) want to rent - isn’t it better to have many available so competition isn’t so high prices escalate

And if I sell it will be to the highest bidder, on our Scottish "offers over"
system- which will give me significantly more than the home report price - so it won't be FTB's.

It's a lovely flat in a sought-after area of the city. A bit "hipster" now.

Often landlords with multiple BTL properties will have interest only mortgages so will not be making capital repayments. The interest associated with a BTL mortgage is higher than a residential mortgage and there are lots of expenses such as high stamp duty, agency fees, maintenance etc that means that it is totally possible for a landlord to make very little profit from the rental income they make. Many are gambling that property prices rise and the asset will appreciate in value. Even then, they will be subject to CGT when selling the house. Not saying that landlords don't make money, but it certainly isn't the 'get rich quick' scheme that some on this thread are implying.

If mortgage interest payments were a tax-allowable expense, many of us would stay as LL.

I don't think this is the right move. Why should the rental market be heavily regulated and others not? Maybe this is a sign of things to come.

Then when deciding to go ahead with regulations I would expect problem tenants to also be targeted. The current laws give too much leeway to bad landlords and bad tenants.

Never mind all those people with nowhere to live then. As long as you can get a bargain.

This

Not a huge fan. If anything, it'll just force landlords to sell up but that won't help new buyers because prices will still remain high. Landlords have to still pay the mortgage and most landlords aren't millionaires.

I am also not all that comfortable with the government intervening and telling a person what they can and can't charge for someone staying in their private property. It is a transaction between two private individuals, I don't like the idea that the government can just wade in as and when.

I am not a landlord and will never have the money to be one. But I am a big believer in freedom to make choices.

But they aren't. Loads and loads of landlords haven't been able to remortgage for years now due to increasing restraints on BTL mortgages, so they are victim to the increasing base interest rate. Team that with not getting tax relief on the mortgage value any more and the increasing costs of repairs (due increasing costs of traders and parts) and it all adds up to a loss.

I only know a handful of landlords who have a mortgage but they are all making a loss, all have tried to sell with the tenant in situ, all are having to evict them to sell (and yes, all have offered the house to the tenant). But they are all selling, because to increase the rent to cover the costs would be ridiculous - that's not to make a profit, just to cover costs.

This. There is such a crippling shortage of rental accommodation already, it's like the government are actively trying to make people homeless.

It was a disgrace that they used to get taxpayer funded mortgage tax relief.