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.

Its great news as the market is now being flooded with flats and prices are having to come down. The exploitative "landlord as an occupation" era is finally over and this will be good for younger generations

@KeepPumping I assume the problem for renters is finding an affordable rental especially with many landlords currently exiting the market. Probably depends on area too. I don't think the slightly lower rents quoted in the article will help that many renters. Cities where rents were, and by the looks of it even with a drop in price, still expensive.
In Bristol, they have fallen 5 per cent year-on-year from £1,440 a month to £1,370.

And in Manchester, rents have dropped from £1,210 to £1,160 a month, down 4 per cent over the past year.

My colleague told us all the rentals he's tried want a higher minimum income than his (which although not high earning isn't particularly low).

The income thing is just bluster, soon they will be begging him to take the flat.

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/news/uk-housing-market-news/hundreds-of-high-end-properties-to-flood-london-market-after-collapse-of-shadow-bank/

Landlords are trying to exit the market, but just because you want to sell up doesn"t mean there are buyers at your required price ( remember a lot of recent landlords have a LOT of BTL debt!) It is the trend that counts, the drops at the moment seem small ( not sure landlords would think a 10% drop in their income is small though?) but the trend is most certainly down.

Great news that loads of renters as are being evicted before the change in law? Wrt younger generations. Many being evicted are families with young children. They'll now have to go through the immense stress of temporary accommodation.

It's all well and good gloating that the end of "the landlord as an occupation" era is finally over. Until people remember there's no current alternative for many renters.

ETA. Very expensive areas in London like Mayfair and Belgravia seeing falls in prices to still very expensive prices really doesn't help the average renter in the UK. Nor does a potentially cheaper future rental market across the board help renters needing somewhere now.

But I thought all small landlords were evil money grabbing swines? Big corporate landlords won't be fun at all.

I am not selling. I only have 6, but I am looking to get more as soon as I feasibly can (had a lot to pay out over the last couple of years). I think It's despicable what the government have done/are doing but I am not going to jump before I am pushed.

This thread is full of people disingenuously expressing faux concern for poor tenants getting evicted.

What they're really concerned about is their gravy train slowing down.

The reason there are so many sitting duck tenants is because house prices in this country have rocketed, cutting many out of the market as others have collected flats and houses as a non productive source of income.

In the long term, a move like this that expands access to property ownership should be celebrated

Yep, the gravy train just hit the buffers for sure, it was going to get derailed by Japan raising rates anyway but this latest mess is a magnitude of disaster worse if you are trying to make profit from property, and Japan is still aiming to raise rates on top of this mess it looks like!

I guess neither of you have heard that mortgage rates are going up? People can't get mortgages as easily as you seem to think. I am lucky that my tenant who has been really wonderful (in comparison to the nightmare family beforehand) doesn't want to own property since divorcing, but young families are being pushed further away from home ownership by the mortgage rates, not by landlords, who often own outright.

@HamJam1 I'm not a landlord. I just happen to know one of the many renters affected by this. In the long term, a move like this that expands access to property ownership should be celebrated. What about all the renters including my colleague who need a home now? Loads of people aren't in a position to buy. @LeanToWhatToDo is right

Im very surprised to read that,

So surprised that Im inclined not to believe it but I suppose it must be true.

There has been years of brainwashing - Not enough houses etc. When reality hits a lot of people won"t believe it, I think the main driver here is the very large drop in numbers coming to the UK for work/study, and a whole generation that basically live with their parents so older folk can keep pretending their bungalow is worth a small lottery win.

I dont believe it because its not what I see on the ground with my service user group, scrabbling for rentals, lists as long as your arm for landlords/rental companies to pick who they want

Perhaps that will change but Im not seeing that at the moment, south east.

Most renters served notice aren't looking for 'high end' properties in London.

I agree.
Plus it seems likely that Interest rates could go up, which will further push prices down.

There’s nothing remotely socialist about the present-day Labour Party! Blair put an end to that in the 1990s.

But your comment about kulaks has made me wonder. Did Blair and his followers manage to not only expunge all the good of socialism, but keep the bad bits?

Even if so, I can’t see any way in which huge corporations are an improvement on small landlords, competently regulated.

It will just mean the housing market will follow all our privatised utilities into ownership by multinationals that don’t give a damn about our laws and regulations, much less the people who have to use their ‘services’.

My parent's have been landlords for 30 years, only the one BTL property. Had the same tenants in it for the last 15 years. Always charged below market rent, and never increased it during the last tenancy, so the rent was less than half current market rents for the area. The mortgage was paid off years ago, and the low rent still covered all the other overheads. Tenant was good, fairly easy going, low stress, generally looked after the place. But my parents have decided to evict them and sell up. Too much bureaucracy and overheads etc coming in (local authority is now requiring licensing for all rental properties, at a hefty cost).

This is the reality - all the 'legacy' cheaper tenancies are at risk, landlords cost go up, so rents will go up. Driving out the small time independent landlords who have low overheads and typically offer lower rents, meanwhile big foreign investment funds are buying up UK housing stock as fast as they can. And they are profit driven, so rents will be top whack.

My parent's tenants have now moved out, quite upset that they're in a worse property, with a higher rent. No idea how they've managed that even, since they wouldn't pass most landlords affordability checks, and never even asked my parent's for a reference (which would have been good, so no reason not ask if they needed one). Strongly suspect they've ended up in some slum tenancy with a dodgy landlord.

Meanwhile the house has sold (STC) and BTL investors were fighting over it, private purchasers couldn't or wouldn't compete. I expect the next tenant in that house will be paying twice as much.

Lose lose all round, except for the revenue, since there's going to be a substantial cgt bill.

Anyone who thinks this incoming legislation is going to be good for renters is deluded.

I'm so happy its coming in. I don't have the energy anymore to fight my letting agent / landlord to deal with damp and mould.

I just want out of this hellhole property.

Why do people automatically think ‘big investment company’ = terrible?

What these companies want is reliable monthly income from tenants for minimum fuss. So they don’t want high tenant turnover because that’s just faff to them. They don’t want disputes. They want to protect the integrity of their building and have the funds to pay for improvements. They want to keep tenant happy! They’re not going to evict you for any reason other than you’re annoying other tenants.

Look at all of the happy lifetime renters in the continent. These rent from big investment companies and are very happy about it. They have stability for life. Why is that a bad thing?

I hope you enjoy Blackrock or some other faceless corporation being your landlord.

There are no unintended consequences to this legislation. It is designed to force out small scale property owners, and drive them out of owning physical assets, and replace them with mega corporations who will snap up these properties and out bid potential first time buyers.

Nothing will get better for renters, or those wanting to get on the property ladder.

Meanwhile, property taxes and high interest rates will do over existing home owners.

And don't forget, if your council tax rises keep compounding above wage rises, then its only a couple of decades before council tax hits £20000 per year for some houses.

You will own nothing and you will be happy indeed.

Yeah because all those slum and "accidental" landlords really gave so much of a shit about their tenants didnt they?

I'd rather pay rent to a company than a person. At least a company creates jobs.
Private landlords create nothing except a cycle of inherited wealth

TBH from direct observation this isn't even true news. I live on a street in London which for the last 20 years has been predominantly rented out by buy to let landlords- some HMO, some not.
Not one of these has gone on the market since the tax change- mattresses and sofas are dumped on the street and replaced every 3-6 months just the same as before.
As for GB News's claim that rents are crashing, it is just laughable here-maybe in Clacton, but I doubt it.
It is just business as usual and most buy to let landlords have absorbed the costs into their rents-which have jumped up in the last year.

Not true, well not for me.

A close relative was evicted, she'd been there for 21years, LL was always very reasonable and rent was low.
She sold only due to changes coming along.

My relative suffered so much stress her hair started falling out, she couldn't afford the "market rent" and wasn't able to get any council help.

So i bought her a house, charge below market and will never evict, to see her fall aprt like this was awful.
i never intended to be a LL as i don't agree with it but i had no alternative... the up coming changes are stupid and ill thought out.

People like you have no clue as to the impact of eviction on people, none at all, sure there will be properties but for many cheaper housing doesn't help them as they can't get a mortgage ever, too old, low wages etc.

Watch rents rocket as mortgage costs going up again.

Well according to a poster above, rents are cheaper and landlords are without tenants, it should be easy for you to find something different, have you looked?