To think landlords who own multiple properties are part of the housing crisis?

[ByArtfulOliveDuck]

Is it unreasonable to say that having a portfolio of rental homes is unethical in a housing shortage?

You won't get far with this pal. MN thinks landlords are housing's answer to Father Christmas. Bestowing the gift of a home upon all these undeserving wretches.

yes and no. I’ve lived in rental properties before when that has been the best situation for me. New town, new relationship or between houses. If there weren’t rental properties then where would people who can’t or don’t want to buy live?

Partly. But they are filling a demand. Not much point in further discouraging them at this point though as it’s no longer easy to make profits through continuous asset growth so they’re all getting out. Lots have made too much money from other people but a bit late now.
I have much much more to say about second homes, overseas investors who don’t live in the property and worst of all AIRBNB. At least landlords provide a home that someone lives in all the time. If there aren’t enough homes let’s discourage the wealthy from having more then one.

Air BnB is a bigger problem where we live - the BTL all sold up a few years ago or switched to Abnb - it is a total disaster tbh.

Where would people live if they couldn't rent?
Far more important to increase social housing. I would make councils buy up suitable houses to add to the social housing portfolio. No more right to buy.
Legislation to protect tenants and landlords and fair rents.

Depends on the area as each has its own demographic.

The housing crisis is due to there being too few houses for the population leading to many families living in bedsits, many homeless on the streets and overcrowding. We need a few million more of houses.

It doesn’t matter whether existing housing is owned or rented, it is still housing a family. Pressuring landlords to sell up results in ZERO more houses for families to live in.

I do agree certain landlords and sellers are taking advantage of the housing crisis by charging far too much rent or far too high a sales price. But that is a symptom of the problem of too few houses not the cause of the crisis.

MN loves needy landlords, who are innocent victims of growing social
injustice - not their fault they make millions sleeping!

So when I left home at 18 with some clothes, books, a radio and a small income, what would you have had me do? Sleep in a hedge?

Not everyone can get a mortgage. Not everyone wants a mortgage? There are different times of life and different situations when rented accommodation is perfect, and for that, we need landlords. They perform a vital and necessary service.

But we need land lords who maintain properties in a decent state.

So what would happen if they sold them all? I'm no expert but I'd assume there's going to be a lot of people with nowhere to live and there's not enough social housing so where would everyone go? I'd say the biggest problem lies with previous governments of all parties that haven't invested enough money into the social housing sector. If we had more social housing private renting wouldn't be so profitable.

Having a portfolio of rental homes isn’t causing the rental crisis, possibly having them as short term lets is. Essentially this goes back to the government. There should never have been the policy of selling off their social housing rental stock and not replenishing them.

Theres a lot of chatter now of removing smaller landlords and replacing them with corporate landlords and honestly things will be worse. Penalising smaller landlords to the extent that the bulk now want to leave isn’t going to increase a rental stock for renters or drive the price down. It will only force the price up.

I don't see what is the difference between one person owning multiple properties to let or multiple people owning one let property.

There is, and always will be, a large demand for properties to rent.

So how can it possibly matter?

Yes … they create a problem by reducing the supply of houses, therefore increasing the prices, and making them unaffordable for people on an average wage.

These “multiple property owners” will target deprived areas, sucking money out of them, to fund their nice lifestyle, in a very different areas.

These landlords often making a fortune from housing benefit, universal credit, and tax credits. So it’s all of us (unsurprisingly) funding thier second homes in France.

I understand people who become “accidental” landlords .. nothing against them. When you are owning 4,5,6 properties, I want morning more than the government to bring in policies to give you no option than to sell.

Do you think so? Most of the comments I see on MN say most landlords are the devil incarnate.

I agree but this is MN where people think LLs are saints just helping those who can’t afford to buy, they’re doing them a favour you see 🙄

Don’t worry, it’s becoming almost impossible to be a small landlord so it’ll all be eaten up by big corporations who will have high volume to be able to make some profits. And that’ll be 10x worse for any renter.

I think people believe small landlords are rolling in cash stolen from poor unfortunate renters when the reality is the profits are now barely existent unless you own the property outright. The amount of red tape is also unfeasible.

if you look at the lending practices from our beloved banks, maybe that’s a clue to the problems.

… Bought by social housing providers, who can rent them at a reasonable rent.

I think the amateur buy to let landlord with 1 property is more of an issue. Outlaw buy to let mortgages and much of the housing issue would resolve itself.

I think the issue isn’t necessarily about the demand for rental properties - clearly, renting will always be necessary for some people. The concern is about the impact on housing availability and affordability when individuals or companies own large portfolios. When one person owns multiple properties, it can limit the number of homes available for purchase by others and drive up prices.

If the balance between homeownership and renting tips too far toward large-scale property ownership, it can make it harder for people to buy their own homes. I’m not saying renting is inherently bad, but I think there’s room to question whether this contributes to the housing crisis.

How do they reduce supply if someone is living in it?

If it’s an owner occupier family or a family on housing benefit what’s the difference, a family is housed.

The only way they would reduce supply is if they were keeping homes empty. Otherwise it’s basically saying as tenants we somehow take up homes undeservingly. We’re supposed to just live in the ether or something…

@ExtraOnions there's properties in my area that have been on the market for ages, my friend has been trying to sell her parents house for nearly a year. Why don't the social housing providers buy what's on the market now? Especially if it's been on for a while.

Puerile.

There has never, EVER, been any kind of claim that LL's are "saints".

You don't think there are people who need to rent?

The fact is there is a huge market for rental property, and LL's fill that need.

Of course there are some shitty greedy LL's - probably just as many shitty freeloading tenants.

it would be much easier and cheaper to get a mortgage if there were less greedy landlords.

I've got no issue with private landlords, if the rents were capped at mid market rent level & they were held to the same standards with repairs etc. I also feel sorry for good landlords who do want to sell, change tenants etc, as it's essentially impossible to evict tenants without going to court now (not tenants fault either btw - the local councils won't help people unless they are forced out) I would love more social housing to be available but the demand is never going to match the supply. There are far too many people on waiting lists & people in desperate need, so normal families who are in the middle - can't afford to buy but won't present as homeless - will realistically never be housed unless they find a private let.

How?