Renters rights bill - 1 May 2026 good or disaster?

[Rosie8880]

So the renters rights bill has now been confirmed. From May 1 next year all tenancies will become rolling/ periodic and section 21 no fault evictions will end. Reading some blogs some landlords feel this is the end of private landlords. I don’t feel it is. Housing is a serious thing obvs and for many decades it’s been seen as a financial wealth building instrument, first, and a home second. I think tenants will stay in properties for longer now which will onto benefit local communities, and minimise people having to move around all the time. Will there be a shortage of housing now - I don’t feel there will be. As less people hopefully will need to move all the time. There will be less need. Plus the homes that do get out on market will help lower asking price as more homes are made available. But let me know your thoughts

I would love my tenants to stay longer, but as I own inner-city flats, I usually get short-term tenants for about a year. None of my flats are worth more than when my partner bought them 18 years ago and none of them make any money so the whole thing is a struggle but we can't sell them for various reasons.

I think the new bill is great if it stops landlords evicting tenants for stupid reasons, but I'm not sure it helps people get on the property ladder if more properties leave the rental market. Lots of people want to rent and have good reasons for renting (e.g. I have a friend in her 60s who has no desire to own her own home and is very happy renting) and if more rentals are sold, it just pushes up the price of the ones left which does not help people who either don't want to or can't buy their own home.

It’s going to be a bit of an experiment I think. I’m in Brighton and there is a glut of 1-2 beds that aren’t shifting some or rather majority of them have come down in price by 10-20%! What could happen is we will see some tenants staying in properties longer, and then should the wider impact of this change mean more properties for sale across the next year, and lowering prices more people being able to afford to buy or at very least have security of renting. Can see in some areas the quick removal of previously rental properties will push up rental prices if rental properties become scarce but then do wonders if government will announce new funds / powers for authorities to purchase long term vacant properties via CPO etc

We became accidental landlords in June this year because we needed to buy a bigger house, but due to a legal problem with land registry we can't sell for the time being. We are using an agent and the tenants are a couple who have signed a 12 month contract but want to stay long term. We agreed a rent halfway between our expected amount and the agent's suggestion. So it is below market rent.
The rent covers the mortgage, agent's fees and insurance with around £300 left over to cover any other costs related to the house. We are quite happy with that as we aren't looking to make a profit from it.

We expect the contract to change to a rolling contract next year due to the new regulations. It is possible we would be in a position to sell it by this time next year, but have no plans to do so if the tenants continue to treat the house well and pay the rent regularly.
It would be great if that was a widespread attitude among landlords.

We are landlords to 2 accidental rentals - (the start of covid, heavily pregnant, if we didn't move asap we wouldn't have been able to afterwards due to mortgage cost changes with my no income).
We've been totally happy with the tenants we have, but if the situation was this 5 years ago I don't think we'd have done it.
My BIL has had to evict 2 separate sets of tenants. Even though they would be classed as "fault evictions" (tenants smashing the place up etc) I bet it would have been a lot harder to do with the new rules.

I work in this area, my view (and the view of others in the industry)
Good for Tenants already in a property
Bad for Landlords
Bad for people looking for a Rental as there is low availability already in most areas and this will make things worse
Bad for anyone who does not have a perfect profile and who can't pass Referencing, although there are Insurance products to help with this albeit at a cost to the Tenant
Good for large corporate landlords as they will own most rental stock and have the necessary legal teams etc to evict if needed and will not suffer financially if they can't evict for some time

You ask in your post "Will there be a shortage of housing now?" Surely you know that there already is a shortage?.

It's a no from me. This will make a bad situation worse as landlords sell up.

Of course this will increase a housing shortage. In London, landlords are selling fast. .

I think it will force people to move away from their home towns.

My hometown has a population of nearly 40k people. Tourist area. Righmove shows there are currently 30 rentals available for the whole town. The nearest big town is 10 miles away and means commuting back for work or family support.

So I'm not convinced it's going to help those people. They won't suddenly be able to afford a mortgage for a property thats 10x their salary.

Yes but potentially, if landlords sell up house prices may fall in the area meaning buying will be affordable for more people and therefore fewer people will be looking to rent privately. Housing isn't magically immune from supply and demand.

When I was a FTB in London 11 years ago, the biggest issue wasn't competing against other FTB but prospective landlords.

I think people are being very naive if they think house prices are going to fall as a result of this legislation. There are peaks and troughs in house prices which vary from area to area but generally there is always an upward trend in the longer term.
We are a relatively small island with limited resources, our population is steadily increasing. Supply and demand means that rental will be unaffordable for many people and adult offspring will not be able to leave home. We will see more homeless people and poverty

You are being very naive here.

Landlords are selling up to bit corporates who will put rents up. Not good at all.

Another accidental landlord here.

I don’t mind the “no eviction rule” as I want longterm tenants, but won’t landlords be able to effectively evict tenants by increasing rent every year?

The thing is, people who own houses don't actually want house prices to fall.

Negative equity drives people to sit tight so the market will slow.

Rent will be effectively controlled as all rent increases will need to comply with section 13, and I believe max rent increase 10% and will need to match no more then av market rent increase area. But as always legal can help clarify

Exactly - this is a first step to slowing down price rises. I think….

Will the new rules apply for people in existing tenancies or only for tenancies started after May 2026?

Rent can only be raised by "market rate" under the new legislation and a Tenant can go to tribunal for any rent increase. The rent cannot be raised before the case is heard and if the Landlord wins and CAN increase it it cannot be backdated.
So no not really

This exactly. Really bad for new tenants and those in any way less perfect than others.

Bad for landlords, including me. we are leaving a flat empty rather than renting it out because we can’t be in a position where we can’t get a tenant out if we want to sell. So that’s one less rental on the market.

This but for those there now surely there’ll be a spike of sales before this is in place too

I think lots of houses are being sold to massive companies, they will never come back onto the market, pushing house prices further up.

Have you factored in tax?
I’m a landlord and looking to sell as soon as my current (nice) tenants say they want to move. As a pp said, prices have stagnated over the last 10 year in our area and despite market rents going up, we now don’t make any money (not being able to offset the mortgage particularly) - and it is becoming too risky with new tenants.

In Scotland it's led to a massive shortage of accommodation in the private rented sector, a couple of years ago students were commuting to Glasgow from places like Perth as there was no private rented flats at all.

Really bad for prospective tenants who might fail referencing because of bad credit or because they've been self employed for less than a year and can't prove income. In those cases an option was always to offer rent in advance. Without being able to do that they will have no chance.
Bad also for tenants who admit to not wanting to rent long term. I can't see people between house sales or just moving to an area being picked anymore, because Its going to cost a fortune in fees for landlords is tenants are in and out after a couple of months, and they're going to try and pick people they think will be longer term.
I think a lot will sell up due to fees, the difficulties in getting tenants out and having to agree to pets etc.. There is already a big shortage of private lets. I think rents are going to shoot up.