Small landlords selling off isn't a great news after all

[Goingindrain]

My landlord is a small landlord, just owns his house and the one where we live. He is a nice man and charges us below the market rate rent.
He is fed up of all the anti landlord rules and has decided to sell. It seems he had an offer from FTB and then a big corporation put in an offer 10k over and he's selling it off to them via the agents.
I am worried about the rent going up and it's not a great news for tenants.

Honestly can`t see their business model lasting much longer.

One would have to be a "special" person to be able to sell a house in a housing crisis at a loss!

I know you are joking but it depends what you are trying to sell I suppose? Purchases over the last five years or so are likely to be looking at an immediate loss I would think. Did BTL landlords pile into new-builds?

https://mortgagesoup.co.uk/new-build-sales-slump-62-as-buyers-await-price-stability/

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/selective-licensing-in-the-private-rented-sector-a-guide-for-local-authorities/selective-licensing-in-the-private-rented-sector-a-guide-for-local-authorities

“Under changes made by the Labour government in December last year, councils no longer need to apply for permission from central government to introduce these licensing schemes. But not all councils in London require licences.
Southwark council, where Reeves’s home is located, operates a selective licensing scheme of this kind. This was first introduced in 2021 and extended to cover the area where Reeves’s house is located in 2023.
It requires any landlord letting out a property to obtain a licence costing £945, by submitting documents proving the house is fit for purpose including gas, electrical and fire safety certificates.”

“Reeves’s spokesperson said she had made an “inadvertent mistake”. She let out her home through a letting agent and was not made aware of the requirement before Wednesday. “As soon as it was brought to her attention she took immediate action and has applied for the licence,” they said.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/oct/30/what-has-rachel-reeves-done-wrong-break-rules-licence-house

Sounds like a money spinner for Southwark Council (£945!) more than anything to me. Why are they doing it and not all London councils? Even the letting agent did not know.
So some councils are doing it in a blanket way now? More costs for landlords. Like I said, small time landlords are providing a service and their own time for free, are they not? And are already taxed at their marginal income tax rate. They should be able to deduct their own time. It is just not a worthy investment anymore, given all the regulation and hassle.

“Very very good advice but most people borrowed money to get into BTL, they didn"t have 500k, that is why BTL took off, it was more nearly free debt that people could access, of course large numbers of people lapped it up thinking any property investment was a one way bet.“

@KeepPumping - it is sort of what I meant though, to use the 500k against a leveraged property portfolio. It makes zero sense to do that now - even if you are risk averse, you can just distribute it online across various banks for a 4% plus annual return, open it all online, guaranteed by the Government up to 85k, across various banks. Lots of Middle Eastern ones providing great returns - now how that is serving the British public more, is beyond me.
The media rhetoric became that landlords are exploiting the public, when the reality is that it is a risky and hassle prone work, dealing with estate agents, tenants, workers all in your own time, cannot deduct mortgage costs if in your own name. The whole thing is dead and not worth anyone’s time.
Why the State in their infinite wisdom think a corporation with employee costs can provide a cheaper service than a small time landlord doing the time investment for free (and taking tenant risk and interest rate risk and Government hate risk aka political risk), is completely beyond me.

I reckon all these politicians are either completely dumb or they literally just do it all for votes. Like lemmings, if public opinion is X, jump off the cliff with them. I just do not understand it at all. I am not even personally invested in any of this. Just sad that it appears that democracy in its current form is dead across various countries now. They infight, they do not react quickly enough, they do not understand any subtleties.

I agree, most landlords are not exploiting the public, they are providing a service to the public, the only point I would make is that most landlords were not starting with the option of saving or investing 500k or buying a rental, they didn`t have the 500k they borrowed it and it was borrowed against property as a deliberate policy by the banks/government to get more secured lending into the economy. A lot of the moves by councils against landlords, licence fees, double council tax etc. are just revenue raising tactics because so many councils are deep in debt.

The letting agent will have been fully aware with people trained in the office. She'd better not throw them under the bus.

The letting agent has ‘apologised’ - apparently they told her they would apply for the license (so they did know) and then forgot to do so.

She also forgot to follow up and check the application had been submitted.

Yes, I have heard that from my solicitor.

But she shouldn't have needed to follow up. The agents are paid to do this stuff and take responsibility for this side of things.

I can totally believe that this happened the way the agent said. I had to take over my mum's rental property when she died, and her agents promised me the world, but ultimately failed to deliver. I wouldn't have occurred to me to check on the things they said they'd do/done either. I only found out when it came to giving the tenants notice in order to sell and meet my mum's debts.

I’m selling my flat. I would describe owning it as being the most stressful expensive thing I have ever done and I have not had an easy life in general so that is saying something.

I wanted to keep it because the tenants are happy and settled there but due to another maintenance issue I just cannot afford it. I will get the maintenance issue fixed, which will probably involve me having to take out a loan then I will give the tenants notice and then I will sell it as soon as I can. I have absolutely hated being a landlord and have experienced people trashing the flat etc. I don’t think me not owning that flat will make anyone’s life easier apart from my own because I will sell it and then if the buyer rents it out they will charge a lot more rent than I have been doing. It’s in Wales so the tenants will have 6 months notice to find a new place and I won’t put it on the market until they have moved out so they won’t have to deal with viewings etc. i still feel bad that they will have to move out but I would literally go bankrupt if I had to keep it.

The larger agents I've had to deal with do not seem to fully understand the law - they seem to be lads in their 20's who want commission. I ended up with an independent agent because they knew their stuff and could and would protect me should I need it, rather than the tenant which the bigger companies protect. Letting agents connected to estate agents seemingly don't realise the landlord is their asset to protect because their £ comes via the renter. Whether they actually make notes on poor behaviour before sending them to another landlord if they have been evicted is doubtful to me too as they seem to "double dip".

I was not at all amazed her agent hadn't done what they said they would - looked like they could barely string a sentence together in the emails. I do wonder how Reeves is finding being a landlord and how her tenants must be feeling knowing they can do whatever they like to her house without her being able to do anything to get rid of them...

‘I do wonder how Reeves is finding being a landlord and how her tenants must be feeling knowing they can do whatever they like to her house without her being able to do anything to get rid of them...”

Reeves is renting the house out for £3200 which on an annual basis is £38400! That is a full time average wage of an adult. So her tenants are more likely to be a rich professional family with kids who won’t give her much grief.

I've had a property with just under 1k less a month and had to evict - the kids can be very destructive, particularly teenage boys. You have to wonder why they don't get a mortgage...

She absolutely should have followed up. Agents act on behalf of landlords, not in place of landlords. If you don’t understand that, you shouldn’t be a landlord.

You pay them to do a job, hold up their side of the legalities. It is literally what she is paying them to do.

You may well pay them to do a job but in the eyes of the law, landlords are ultimately legally responsible for actions performed by letting agents including their mistakes.

Letting agents are mostly a disgrace. Those I have dealt with rarely understand the law in detail.

However, I would add that Rachel Reeves is also somewhat of a victim to the myriad nonsense regulations that businesses have to contend with. No wonder she couldn’t keep up with them all - and yet government expects everyone else to and happily fine you if you don’t.

https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2025/08/warning-to-landlords-selling-up-dont-ask-too-much/

Will Big Corp ride to the rescue?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/insight/landlords-slash-rents-as-demand-collapses/gm-GM31D42889

Not such a nice man then, is he?

Yes agree, landlords are getting fed up and selling up. Too many rules and regs, and too many bad tenants not paying rent etc. It can take ages to get someone out, and some people leave the place in a dirty condition and leave stuff behind. Landlord has then got to clean up, repair damage, get rid of stuff Stressful.

Exactly, it is all about demand for the product.

All these extra regulations have, entirely predictably, been disastrous for tenants. There's a shortage of private rentals and no additional social housing to compensate.

I'm unsurprised many landlords are selling but what a nightmare for tenants. Where do they go? Someone I work with is being evicted. His landlord is selling before the upcoming new law, but despite a reasonable salary my colleague is struggling to find somewhere else.

It's all well and good people saying landlords are exploiting the public but, true or not, the last thing that helps tenants are new regulations, without any current alternative for the many people needing somewhere immediately and not in a position to buy.

No shortage of private rentals, the numbers coming here to work/study have fallen off a cliff.

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/landlords-forced-to-slash-rents-as-enquiries-dry-up-where-have-all-the-tenants-gone/ar-AA1YXgDl