Having given all of us, and myself, a few cheery blogs in a row it is time to face up to the fact that some experts are not giving the thumbs up to the immediate future in the property sector.
The National Landlords’ Association is very clear about the fact that rental arrears are still causing potentially ruinous problems for a lot of landlords. In a recent report, the NLA revealed that according to their figures three quarters of landlords have experienced problems with rental arrears and, even more worryingly, nearly half of these reported substantial problems in the last twelve month.
Of course, this rental arrears issue then impacts dramatically on a landlord’s ability to meet their own commitments including their mortgages and the upkeep of their properties. Tenants with financial difficulties appear to still be a huge headache for landlords despite all the talk of an upturn in the economy.
Another worry on the horizon for professional landlords is the plan to bring the property sector under full regulation. Many may think there is nothing to fear from this but it is certainly a huge unknown that is making many landlords uneasy. It is a fact that regulation tends to cost a lot of money, and that cost is often passed down to the ones being regulated. This fact alone is enough to make landlords nervous.
In the next blog I will look at the way landlords are being treated by the financial institutions and do a bit of a summary of where all this leaves us.
