According to a report in the Guardian newspaper, private landlords are expected to own £1tn worth of properties by spring 2015, even though property price growth is beginning to slow down.

PRS in London Booming
The private rental sector is now 3.5 times larger than it was back in 2001 and landlords now own a staggering £930.7 billion worth of property in the UK. Much of the growth in the rental market is centred in London and the South East – London currently accounts for 41% of the rental sector’s value.

Buy to let lending is also on the rise once again. Around 40% of lending last year was to landlords and with interest rates set to stay low for a while longer, this figure is likely to increase. Figures released by one mortgage lender indicate that one in five homes will be rented by 2015.

Rising Property Prices Fuels Rental Sector
Much of the boom in the rental market is as a result of rising property prices and increasing interest from investors. First time buyers can no longer afford to buy cheaper homes so landlords are snapping them up instead. Landlords in the UK currently receive nearly £4 billion per month in rental income.

“Landlords have benefited from the recovery in house prices since 2009, which has pushed their wealth to within touching distance of £1tn. But as the sector’s value marches upwards, the main impetus has come from the growth in the number of households as demand from tenants continues to climb,” says Andy Golding, CEO of OneSavings Bank.

Controversial super-landlords, Fergus and Judith Wilson, have once again hit the headlines for the way they are running their enormous property empire. The Wilsons were heavily criticised by housing charities last year when it was revealed that they had evicted more than 200 tenants claiming Housing Benefit. This was alleged to be an economic decision at the time as apparently single mothers on welfare were less likely to default on the rent than eastern European migrants.

The Wilsons have now changed tack and have begun serving eviction notices on many of the eastern European families with more than two children or those with three generations living in the same household.

“Most of our houses in Ashford go to childless couples. However, after a couple of months there are four, five, six children and I have to evict the family. The tenancy has been taken by deception,” says Fergus Wilson.

Wilson says he has no choice because if he didn’t his properties would be in breach of local authority ‘overcrowding’ rules.

“Contrary to what may be depicted by the leftwing media, I do not eat little babies alive … I do not make the rules, but I do play by them … welcome to ethnic engineering at the coal face.”

The Wilsons are also not fans of ‘zero hours’ contracts and any tenant without a regular pay check who applies to live in one of their properties may as well forget about it.

“No landlord in his right mind will accept tenants who do not have a guaranteed wage,” says Wilson. “No rent insurer will accept them, so that effectively makes the landlord’s decision for them. No pay … nowhere to live. Welcome to the real world.”

September was party conference month in the UK. First it was the Labour Party conference and according to the Residential Landlords Association, their policies look certain to damage the private rental sector if Labour is elected back into power in the General Election next year.

Labour wants to introduce a national register for private landlords, even though such a scheme has been described as onerous and costly. Labour also wants to introduce rent controls; critics say this will almost certainly undermine investment in the private rental sector, just as it did the last time rent controls were introduced. Labour is also planning on legislating against so-called ‘revenge evictions, which would cost a fortune and is already illegal according to the Competition and Markets Authority.

RLA Comments
Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential landlords association, had this to say:

“Sadly Labour just does not get it on rented housing. Rather than supporting the sector to meet the ever growing demands being placed on it, Shadow Ministers are looking to make cheap political points by reaching for populist regulations without thinking through their consequences.”

Chancellor Announces Working Age Benefits Freeze
Then it was the turn of the Conservative Party to hold their conference and George Osborne announced that the Tories will freeze benefits to those of work age if they are re-elected. Since this tactic will put an even tighter squeeze on low-income families, many of whom are living in private rental housing, one of the unwanted side effects is that landlords are likely to be affected, too.

The popular press would have us believe that landlords all over the country are ruthlessly evicting tenants left, right and centre. In fact this is not true at all. Figures released by the English Housing Survey have show that tenant evictions have fallen from 9 per cent to just 7 per cent since 2011/12, which makes a mockery of repeated claims by housing charity, Shelter, that evil landlords are engaging in so-called ‘revenge evictions’ on a regular basis.

Most Evictions are Legitimate says RLA
According to research carried out by the Residential Landlords Association, most evictions happen because a landlord needs to sell the property or move back in, the property needs extensive repairs, or because the tenant has not paid the rent, all of which are perfectly legitimate reasons.

RLA Accuses Shelter of Scaremongering
Richard Jones, Policy Director at the Residential Landlords Association, has called Shelter’s recent campaign to highlight revenge evictions as ‘scaremongering’.

“The official figures show quite clearly a fall in the number of tenants having their tenancies terminated and by far most of these are for perfectly good reasons,” he says.

“Shelter’s campaign on so called revenge evictions is totally inaccurate and irresponsible. To severely restrict landlords’ right to regain possession as Shelter advocates would severely damage confidence in the sector. This would reduce supply at a time of high demand causing more people to be homeless and we thought Shelter is all about reducing the number of homeless. In the past, Shelter have put out highly questionable statistics, which bare little resemblance to reality which we again see today.”

New rules have been introduced by the DCLG inviting letting agents to join a redress scheme, the idea being that tenants and landlords are then protected from shoddy business practices. Unfortunately the rules underpinning the scheme are a bit unclear and already the DCLG has been forced to publish new guidance – and it’s only been a few days since the scheme was launched!

According to the guidance notes, landlords are classed as property managers or letting agents if they undertake particular activities as part of their business. These include:

• If a landlord helps another landlord find a tenant or a tenant find a home in the private rental sector (not including relatives), they are classed as a letting agent

• Arranging services, maintenance, repairs, improvements or insurance (or dealing with any other aspect of managing a residential property) on behalf of someone else makes a landlord a property manager

The scheme is a bit confusing, but further guidance is available.

What is the Point of the Redress Scheme?
The DCLG is keen to drive up standards and filter out bad letting agents from the private rental sector:

“While the majority of lettings agents and property managers provide a good service there are a minority who offer a poor service and engage in unacceptable practices. This requirement will mean that tenants and landlords with agents in the private rented sector and leaseholders and freeholders dealing with property managers in the residential sector will be able to complain to an independent person about the service they have received.”

The Mail on Sunday has revealed that a group of Iraqi Asylum seekers have been raking in a fortune by illegally sub-letting luxury London flats. After claiming asylum in the UK, the individuals were given Housing Benefit to pay for flats in some of London’s most exclusive areas. Unfortunately for the UK tax payer, their hard-earned cash was soon invested in a money making exercise of gigantic proportions.

Instead of living in their luxury flats with concierges, 24 hour security, and manicured lawns, the Iraqis decided to sub-let the flats to wealthy tourists for as much as £3,000 per week.

Local estate agents are not surprised to learn of the property letting scam.

“They come into my office asking which blocks are best to rent,” one Marylebone agent told the Daily Mail. “Some of them will come to the UK with a piece of paper with instructions on how to do things. First you have to be pregnant, then go to the housing department – they give you a flat.

“After you get the flat, you move into another place, give the [first set of] keys to an agent, he will find you a tenant and you’ll be making double whammy – money from the Government and making money from the flat the Government gave you.”

The refugees apparently find their luxury accommodation through a middle-man, who splits the profits with the benefits claimants when the money starts rolling in from wealthy Arabs holidaying in London. The owners of the properties have no idea what’s going on because the rent is paid on time.

Unfortunately, despite the fact the fraudsters have all been caught and their Housing Benefit cut off, Westminster Council says it will be extremely difficult to recover the money via a criminal prosecution because of the high burden of proof needed in court.

Students at Oxford Brookes University are being asked to rate their landlords. Results of the questionnaire will be compiled into a comprehensive landlords database and passed on to Oxford City Council.

“There are varying standards of landlords across the city and we are hoping we can put pressure on the council to sort this out,” says Andy Pederson, President of the Students’ Union.

“You will find a similarly poor standard of housing in other cities, but when you look at the price of housing in Oxford you will be paying more for less here.”

Bi-Annual Student Survey
University students will be given two questionnaires to fill in: one at Christmas and the second at the end of the academic year. Mr Pederson wants students to be more aware of their rights to good quality housing, so by encouraging them to get involved with the Rate My Landlord campaign, it is hoped that problems in the city’s student housing can be rectified. He says the Rate My Landlord scheme will put pressure on the local council to sort out any problems that are highlighted – and if there are none, they will congratulate the council on a job well done.

NLA Interested in Campaign
The National Landlords Association is following the campaign closely:

“The National Landlords Association is interested to see the findings of Oxford Brookes’ private housing survey as we believe that no one should have to put up with sub-standard accommodation or suffer unsafe living conditions,” says local policy officer, Gavin Dick.

The National Landlords Association (NLA) has warned Croydon Council that their plans
to extend the current landlord licensing scheme to include all landlords will deter
landlord investment in the area and force existing landlords to raise rents in order
to cover rising costs.

Increased Landlord Costs
The current landlord licensing scheme in Croydon only applies to landlords with Houses
of Multiple Occupation (HMOs), but the council has begun to consult on new proposals
that will extend the scheme to all homes in the private rental sector. If the scheme
goes ahead, landlords will face increased costs of up to £1,000 per property, which
they will have to pass on to their tenants. The proposal will also force landlords to
take responsibility for managing anti-social behaviour and monitoring visitors to
their properties.

The NLA, along with local MP, Gavin Barwell, are strongly opposed to the scheme and
are urging landlords and tenants to attend a meeting on 25 September to discuss the
matter. Croydon Council representatives have also been invited to attend.

Landlord Stealth Tax
“It doesn’t take a genius to work out what will happen if this scheme goes ahead –
landlords will simply pass the additional cost on to their tenants. It is a classic
Labour stealth tax that is predicted to raise over £4.5 million for the council,
lifted straight from the pockets of hardworking residents. Introducing a stealth tax,
which will lead to some of the most vulnerable people in society facing even higher
rents, is beneath contempt,” says Gavin Barwell.

Landlords come in all shapes and sizes: some good, some mediocre, and a few terrible ones. Life as a tenant is not always a bed of roses, especially if you have to deal with a landlord in no rush to fix a faulty boiler or call in a pest control company, but things could soon be very different.

Corporate Renting Comes to the UK
According to an article in the BBC, corporate renting is about to come to the UK. If it takes off, corporate renting could change the landscape of the UK rental market forever. So what is corporate renting?

Corporate landlords are companies not people. It is common in the US, but not here. However, one UK company is preparing to offer as many as 5,000 corporate rental flats in London. The flats are described as ‘up market’ and have been carefully designed to encourage tenants to stay for as long as possible. Costs will be kept down – the company will even change light bulbs to reduce tenant breakages.

On the face of it there are many advantages for tenants. After all, the landlord isn’t likely to put the property on the market and there are no letting agents charging hefty fees. Tenants will also get problems sorted quickly.

However, critics say most of the flats will be far too expensive for ordinary tenants on ordinary wages. The company behind the scheme disagrees: they argue that their properties will be marketed at middle earners rather than wealthy tenants.

Will the Idea Take Off?
Unless hundreds of other companies jump on the bandwagon, probably not, but if the scheme proves to be successful, investors may decide to dip a toe in the corporate rental market.

A recent report published by the Chartered Institute of Housing in conjunction
with the Resolution Foundation is calling for letting agents to stop charging
tenants fees. The report argues, amongst other things, that if fees are
eradicated, the private rental sector will improve. They also suggest that the
government should offer landlords tax breaks if they make an effort to improve
the quality of their accommodation.

Chartered Institute of Housing Recommendations
The main recommendations of the report by the Chartered Institute of Housing
include:

• creation of a set of minimum standards covering management and standards of rental property;
• extend regulation of letting agents and estate agents to prevent them from charging tenants fees;
• offer landlords tax incentives for housing improvements; and
• development of a set of accreditation standards for rental properties

“With more and more people living in the private rented sector – including more
older people, more families with children and more vulnerable people from the
housing waiting list – it’s vital that we look at new ways to raise standards,”
says CIH CEO Grainia Long. “The cost of housing means that for many people,
the private rented sector is the only option, but too many of them are having
to put up with poor standards and insecurity.”

The Chartered Institute of Housing says the rental sector has doubled in size
in the last twenty years – it now accounts for 18% of housing in the UK.
Unfortunately many rental properties fail to meet modern standards and are long
overdue improvements.