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?

Better a professional landlord who knows what they're doing, has the money and willing to do needed repairs and maintenance promptly. Than Bob and Sue who got a buy to let instead of a pension and have no idea how to manage property.

Having experience of both I'd take the professional with the portfolio any day. Not all buy to let owners are clueless obviously. Plenty are great at it, but I've met too many who aren't.

Yes but our LL has other properties so I guess if he didn’t we might not have anywhere to live. I think there is a lot of buying and selling/ renting for profit in our area as rent and house prices have risen in the last couple of years and it’s difficult to find somewhere to buy in our budget.

I think it depends which way the wind is blowing 🤣

Probably more accurate yeah 🤣

I'll always be grateful to my first landlord, who asked me what I thought was a reasonable rent and then charged me less. In return he got a reliable long-term happy tenant. It was another 12 years before I wanted to take on what I felt was the scary prospect of a mortgage.

Also the diminishing supply that others have identified.

Rents, like the price for anything else, are set at a level when demand and supply come into equilibrium. They're not set by landlords, tenants or anyone else!

Agree. Nobody needs more than one property. Bring back houses as homes not investments.

We don’t have a housing shortage. We have a headcount problem caused by uncontrolled immigration.

It wouldn't annoy me as much if I could get a decent long term lease, I've rented for about 6 years and, despite my landlord wanting a long term tenant, I had to go from a 6 month contract, to a 12 month after 12 month contract. In my previous rental homes we've been told they want a long term let when actually they want someone to fill it for 3 months whilst they get it properly on the market- then I have to move a family of 5 somewhere else who also, supposedly, want a long term tenant.
I'm ok with a landlord having rental homes as a business, but let me sign for a decently long amount of time (in the same way you would in America), let me make this my home.

This - met up with some visiting American colleagues who loved the air b & b they were renting in a fashionable bit of N London. Solid ex council stock, now owned by an overseas buyer ( who knows how far down the chain from the original renter) , right next to a big depot. They were saying how cute - I thought of the workers with early start times who would have once have been nearer their employment.

And those saying private landlords should not exist so that it could all become social housing. What about those who would never qualify for state controlled housing or who want some choice or flexibility ?

Not true. Most people ARE housed but are paying too high rents and mortgages. And many homes lie empty

I'm a LL OP and I partly agree.
LL have pushed up prices making it very difficult to get on the first rung.
I don't think they have contributed to the housing crisis though. The housing crisis is the result of to little housing. If a owner had property sitting empty, that would contribute to the crisis, (see ghost blokes in London).
What we need is a massive council house building programme. Make the state landlord of first resort not last resort.

The housing shortage is caused by …. Not enough housing for population levels.

thats the policy problem to solve.

the mix of rental /owner occupied is a public policy issue - but a different one with lots of different options that can benefit society.

It’s a bit like saying that supermarket should be banned because they sell too much food we should all get our stuff from man corner shops.

And social landlords can be APPALLING

Another issue contributing to the housing crisis is under occupation (classed as 2+ spare bedrooms). In my area alone, and, just within council stock, there are 34,000 spare bedrooms.

💯%

Everything being turned into student flats/HMO.

And there are too many people in this country.

Two kids at uni who need to rent.
One has a landlord with a portfolio of properties. Problems are fixed quickly because they also have a portfolio of tradespeople available at short notice.
Other student is with a landlord with two properties. They don't have a handy list of tradespeople and are prone to trying to bodge things themselves.

In both cases renting is cheaper than being in halls.

Another issue I think is elderly people in care homes. I think average stay in a care home is two year. Google tells me over 400,000 elderly people live in care homes. Let's say 50% of those people lived alone so leave an empty house and 75% of those owned, not rented. After they die, say another year to sell the house. That leaves 150,000 homes sitting empty for three years.
I'm very pragmatic, I'm going to make sure my children just sell straight away if I ever go into a care home (although I shudder at the very thought of them).

Second homes and ghost blocks need punitive local taxes on them as well.

For would be tenants, private landlords are all they have. Social housing has virtually collapsed. As with tenants, there are good landlords and bad landlords.

But people need property to rent?

Their is a housing crisis in the rental sector as well

Where are people supposed to live then?

Yep honestly I’d rather rent from somebody professional who does this for a living, than some clueless “accidental landlord” who isn’t up to speed with regulations, can’t afford to do any repairs because my rent is paying their mortgage, doesn’t get back to me for two weeks when the boiler breaks because they’ve gone on holiday etc.

If every private landlord sold up tomorrow, those properties would not be bought up by housing associations. They’d be Airbnb’s.