Where are all the rental properties?

[Butteryflakycrust83]

A few years ago when we moved, Rightmove would be updating easily 20 or so properties a day. There were many to choose from, and it was relatively easy to find yourself as a first viewer.

I always like to keep an eye on what's on the market and for the least year, I would say a mile radius now has probably 2-3 properties a week. Initially we put this down to reluctance to move during lockdown, but what is causing the shortage now?

Are people reluctant to move while the economy is so unstable?
Are LLs selling properties instead?

As a private renter I always have a worry that if we were to be given notice, we would seriously struggle to find somewhere. I saw a family who have had to buy a tent because they cannot find any properties in their area.

Curious as to thoughts as to what has happened for the stock to drop so dramatically?

Two of my children are looking for rental properties and finding that they are being snapped up more quickly than they can arrange to view.

Councils are under no obligation to home you. My dad was hospitalised for many months, lost his rental during that time, and became homeless. The hospitals only obligation was to call him a taxi to take him to the council to present himself as homeless. Many hours were spent with the local housing team explaining my dads dire health. In the end he was discharged into a hostel, unable to walk, and dumped (literally) into a room with a sink. The toilet was down a flight of stairs. There was dog shit on the floor. My poor dad, incredibly weak, unable to work out what medications to take that had been chucked into a binbag. No food or drink. No help.
If we hadnt of been there, he would have died alone on that bed. A bed we had to fight for. It was only through sheer persistence every single day did we manage to get him moved into an appropriate ground floor flat.

I have worked my entire life, and come from no money. I will never inherit. I cannot save for a deposit because I am paying for someone elses mortgage and PROFIT. I am trapped in a system that benefits those who have been lucky.

So no, I dont care if its rude that I call out shitty landlord behaviour. The good ones are so few and far between.

Housing should not be for profit. Everyone is entitled to a secure home. Buy to Let should be abolished, because as soon as theres any kind of financial blip, its clear these landlords are unable to cope.

So please do spare me the tears of 'But I cant just evict anymore.'

Thank you for all the sensible posters who have given honest and real insight as to what is happening with the market.

@Butteryflakycrust83 there are many people who are still under the apprehension that the council are obliged to house. It's particularly hard on people without children, both young and not so young. Because we privately rent we have made certain choices, not had a pet for instance, only had one child . The situation is actually ludicrous and in our case we could easily afford a mortgage for up to 500k (or could have up to 10 years ago) now we would fail on the time limits as too old. By doing away with self cert mortgages at say 85% that particularly benefited the self employed , there are far too many renting who could actually buy but don't fit the rigid criteria

@Butteryflakycrust83 I'm really sorry for your dad's situation.

It's taken me over a year to find somewhere as I have dogs and bad credit, and there doesn't seem to be the properties out there. I pick the keys up tomorrow though!!

The thing is, all the nice ways of putting it won't change the fact that trying to control the way that landlords run their business does not mean that everyone gets what they want. It just means tht the landlord leaves that business and finds one that works for them better, taking a house for rent off the market. Who is it helping? It's not helping the people on here who need to find a home. I presume that if they were in a position to buy, they would The council aren't buying them to repurpose them. So who exactly is benefitting from these rule changes?

Its not about wanting to evict good tenants. How many reasons really can you think that a landlord would want to evict someone paying rent, taking care of their home, and have to pay to re let it instead? Its about the fact that potentially, someone with a one bedroom flat could have to accept a non - working tenant with 3 kids and 3 dogs, can only take enough deposit that won't cover damage, and can't evict them when the neighbours are complaining about parties and dogs barking and rent is being paid sporadically.

I think governments have gone after the btl landlord so much that they have either sold or turned their properties into short term furnished let’s/Airbnbs.

I suppose it is what people want. To get rid of the btl landlords.
The lack of rental properties is the result

I suppose the ex BTL properties could be sold to FTB. I bought a flat from an ex BTL landlord. Honestly if so many BTL landlords weren't selling up at that time, I wouldn't have been able to afford it.

As I say, i work in the area too. At the minute, we have the following issues:
An alcoholic who has relapsed and lost his job. He is massively behind with his rent, stealing from other tenants, and his full room will need complete refurbishment, as he's lost control of all bodily function.
A group of 3 men who like to play with air rifles, axes and smoke weed in a residential area. The neighbours obviously would like them removed.
Another man who removed wooden struts to a wall for a neighbour's garden for firewood, causing it to collapse.
All of these are currently being evicted, but with the exception of the first, all were paying full rent, so whnen section 21s go, that will be a struggle. So by removing that right, then other tenants, neighbours and the community will suffer. But we would still get rent. So others are worse off because we can't do the job as we see fit.

@onthefencesitter but how does that help those who can't afford a deposit?

“I’m worried about the shortage of rental properties. What if I need to find one to move to?”

”It’s because BTL landlords are selling up”

”Good! Ban all BTL landlords!” (And eradicate all the private rent stock that isn’t corporate built BTR developments in large cities…)

h’okay then.

Why do (some) people hate individual LLs so much? People who might be using BTL income as a pension or running it as a small business? But corporate landlords (who - shock news! - are motivated 100% by profit) are all fine? Is it linked to putting homeownership on a pedastal? All the “family” properties in naice areas should be OWNED and if you want to rent you need to fuck off to housing associations or modern BTR blocks in the city?

Its not about pity its explaining why fewer people want to be Landlords.
For most LL their rental properties are are a Business, if your Business isnt profitable you should get out

I hope councils buy back the cheaper BTL properties. Ideal situation -

Those that can save for a deposit - home ownership

Those who can't - council housing (perhaps different types to cater for the different groups who can't save for whatever reason;not all would be low income)

Rentals mainly for students, expats and rich professionals who want to invest their money in bitcoin and the stock market instead of sinking it into a primary residence.so renting would be for richer people with the exception of students.

@onthefencesitter tht would be great, wouldnt it? But I haven't seen that n action or even raised as an idea/ possibility anywhere. Instead, theyre proposing to sell off more in RTB. So if it continues to be the case that the government dont buy BTL, as is very likely, how is it benefitting those that can't buy by driving out landlords?

It's just a no win situation, driven by public perception.

I rented an ex council flat from an individual landlords in the UK as a student and also rented in Berlin from a large corporation. Very different experiences..

My landlord in university was just a normal guy who exercised right to buy. He had little knowledge about property or even the law. He was also a waiter in his day job so the rental money meant a lot to him and there was probably less wriggle room in the budget. Which was why he scrimped on repairs.

The large corporation took the long view and was far more professional. Providing housing is a serious business and should not be taken on by amateurs. My dad is a landlord too and he owns office blocks in another country. It is his full time job.

We have mainly rented very nice houses in 'naice' areas, where families were overseas or had relocated , but kept the house-.I do know we are lucky. However we did make choices as I said below, no pets, only 1 child and I've always kept the places really well . The only time a landlord didn't renew was when after 5 weeks of shit coming through the bath plug hole and it not being sorted- we contacted the council. Landlord then didn't renew- karma got him though and it was empty for 4 months and we got a better house. The worst landlord though was actually a corporate one with hundreds of good properties in nice areas, who just wouldn't deal with anything regarding maintanance in a remotely timely way.

I'm sure plenty of people will tell me why, but I don't see why a landlord who owns a property shouldn't be able to choose who rents it, it is their property.
I have rented in the past and understood why they wouldn't want pets in the home, I now have pets and they do cause more general wear and tear.
I can see why landlords are leaving the business. If I was in a position to rent out my home but didn't have a say on who would be living there I wouldn't be happy. Making things harder for landlords isn't going to make people want to do this.

Its about the fact that potentially, someone with a one bedroom flat could have to accept a non - working tenant with 3 kids and 3 dogs, can only take enough deposit that won't cover damage, and can't evict them when the neighbours are complaining about parties and dogs barking and rent is being paid sporadically.

Oh come on, this is just not true

No one is going to be forced to take people on benefits or large families. The new rules just say you cannot discriminate against them in advance, i.e. you cannot put no DHS or no kids in the advert. In practice you can still choose whoever you want.

It is only no-fault evictions that are being ended, in exchange they are going to make it easier to evict tenants where there IS fault, i.e. not paying rent or anti-social behaviour.

DH and I are typical of the trend of landlords selling up.
We had 1 rental property and did everything by the book. A tenant who'd been no problem at all for 10 years (who we agreed could keep pets there) became involved in drugs.

In a short space of time it turned into a huge problem for us and her neighbours. Whereas previously we could carry out regular inspections, she played the Covid card to stop that, stopped paying her rent and told a pack of lies.

It took 6 months to evict her and when we finally got in, she'd wrecked the house with a lot of damage caused by her pets.

With legislation to give tenants more rights, it's just not worth the stress for many landlords. We sold to a local woman who is now living there, one fewer rental property available.

Most tenants aren't like our one was, but I have spoken to several landlord friends in recent months who've had similar issues and who are selling up now.

Landlords may not be charities but I think they should have a more reasonable view of profits.

Is it not enough that after X years you will own outright a house that can be sold for a gazillion dollars? Do you need to make tens of thousands more in profits along the way?

I hate the fact that my basic right to housing is determined by whether wealthier individuals are making enough profit, like it's not good enough I'm paying off their entire mortgage

BTL mortgages often are not given unless the rent is at least 150% of the monthly mortgage payment. A lot of BTL mortgages are also interest only.

The banks need to know that the landlord can also pay the mortgage even if there are no tenants, even if the house needs a new roof or a new boiler, even if the pet cats destroyed all the carpets. Plus management fee and tax and all that. my ex neighbour who is renting out her flat says she isn't making any money.

Its different from residential mortgages. You would beg, borrow and steal to continue paying the mortgage. You would pay it before you even pay for food (cos you can get food from a food bank but you can't find shelter as easily). But for a BTL landlord, as its just a business and an 'extra house', he or she wouldn't have the same mentality so the bank needs to make sure that the rent would be far in excess of what is required to service the mortgage so that the landlord would have savings for the lean times.

When we rented our house out we didn't have to switch to a buy to let mortgage because it was our main property and we planned to return to it.

A buy to let mortgage would have been more expensive so it isn't just landlords who make money from rentals.

@onthefencesitter I do understand that, but what I'm questioning is the whole narrative of 'it's just not profitable enough anymore'

If you are charging 150% of mortgage (and clearly lots of LLs are charging way more than that) then you are presumably covering expenses (for all the reasons you list) and making variable amounts of profit each year, depending on whether you need to shell out for big repairs.

A lot of LLs seem to think that if they're not making really big profits every year then it's not worth it. Losing sight that perhaps some years they may not make much but it's a long-term investment.

The new rules will make it easier to evict problem tenants so I would think the chances of big losses will actually go down.

I don't understand this phrase 'I'm paying my landlord's mortgage'. Just for clarity, buy to let mortgages are nearly always interest only, so you aren't paying off their mortgage, they are paying just the interest. Secondly many landlords do not have mortgages. I have a number of properties and have one mortgage on one property which is a buy to let mortgage which will expire in several years. I will be selling that property because the profit is currently 3k a year for my £100,000 investment. Once mortgages increase, and the service charge increases again, or I have to pay a major cost, the profit will be falling to below that I could receive in a basic savings account, no risk and no hassle. Or in a stocks and shares ISA, etc. What would you do?

By the way to date I have had brilliant tenants apart from one who was hard work, and left the property in a condition that took 2k to bring it back up to a good standard. I could have let it without spending the 2k, probably within 2/3 days, but I want my tenants to enjoy their property and if I wouldn't put up with a grubby carpet, or limescale on the toilets why should they.

Landlords are leaving the market in droves. If you want to play the blame game for the housing crisis, direct your gaze at this government who do not have a coherent housing policy, or any policy for that matter. The answer does not lay in pushing landlords out of the market in some sort of misguided view that this will free up housing for people to buy because there's a reason why they are renting.

@Lineala A very accurate post- and I say that as someone who rents !!