Private Rented Sector Buy to Let Consultants
At LettingFocus we take a look at marketing to the private rented sector and to landlords. We look at which sectors of business are good at it – and which are not As part of our business consultancy at LettingFocus.com we advise organisations – both public and private – about how to connect with, market to and sell products and […]
Read moreIn this article, David Lawrenson of LettingFocus.com looks at where the big new entrants could get it wrong with their investments in the private rented sector. The big new players (big pension funds like M&G, Prudential, Legal & General and various foreign real estate investors) who are now already in or about to come into the private rented sector could […]
Read moreCouncils’ failure to engage with private landlords means families could be needlessly placed in emergency temporary accommodation or out of their local borough. Back in July, the Guardian newspaper published a piece of research I had just completed which showed how councils and housing associations are failing to engage private landlords with their various schemes. I thought it worthwhile to […]
Read moreKey Point: We are concerned that whilst local authorities will, in theory, be able to discharge the homelessness duty into the private rented sector, the reality is that many councils may not have done enough to convince private landlords to make their property available to this end of the lettings market. On Monday, I featured with a clutch of housing […]
Read moreSome of our work at LettingFocus involves working with local authorities on setting up local or “social letting agencies” and “private rented sector access schemes.” The aim of the various schemes is to try to encourage landlords to consider letting to tenants who are on housing benefits, who are vulnerably housed or who “present” to the local authority seeking a […]
Read moreFor a long time, in our corporate consulting work with mortgage companies and brokers, I have advised lenders and brokers that the “one size fits all” mortgage lending approach in buy to let may be nearing the end of its shelf life. Our work may soon start to bear fruit. Eventually, other mortgage lenders will follow and design mortgage products […]
Read moreMany local authorities, housing associations and charities designing strategies to try to get private landlords to let to tenants on Local Housing Allowance are very fond of doing surveys of landlords. (Readers of this blog will know how critical I was of one particular survey of landlords that, last year, was used to make some astonishing claims for the impact […]
Read moreI have written quite a bit at this blog about the power of the internet and the importance of customer service in dealing with landlords and with the private rented sector (PRS) in general. Of course, the same thing applies to all businesses. As the author of a quite successful book I am interested in Tim Waterstone’s attempt to buy […]
Read moreIn this blog post we say that local authorities face big challenges trying to make a success of the “Local Letting Agency” concept – and we highlight the areas they will have to work hardest in if they are to be successful. Some groups of local authorities are setting up their own local letting agencies – a topic we have […]
Read moreLandlord readers of this column will know that LettingFocus’s stance these days is now very much built around consulting with organisations who sell products and services to the private rented sector. Basically we tell them how to do it better! Our two biggest client groups are banks / financial institutions who sell mortgage loans to landlords (commonly known as “buy […]
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