The Private Rented Sector Will Not Entertain Void Periods and Local Authorities and Housing Associations Need to Understand This

Letting agents, local authorities and housing associations must start to understand that private landlords want to let fast and won’t entertain void periods. Many council and housing association schemes with private landlords fail to meet this need. All smart landlords (and smart letting agents who know their business) know that minimisation of the “void period” is critical to success in […]

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Accreditation Private Landlords and the Social Letting Agency Model

Key Point: Most private landlords don’t set high value on things like membership of accreditation schemes and property inspections offered by some councils as part of Local Letting Agency schemes designed to attract landlords. They won’t pay much for these features either – especially where a good private let alternative exists. Local authorities must be realistic about what landlords want […]

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Discharging Homelessness Duty to the Private Rented Sector – but where is the Property in the PRS

Key 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 […]

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Government Policy on the Private Rented Sector is Not Joined Up

Sometimes government policy doesn’t seem to join up too well – with different policies apparently conflicting with each other. Two good examples are (1) the lending activities of state owned banks which appear to hamper what local councils are trying to do with their private rented sector access schemes, especially lease schemes and (2) policies on HMOs which appear to […]

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How Not to Market to Private Landlords and the Private Rented Sector

Landlord 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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2011 and the Outlook for the Housing Market, for Landlords and for the Buy to Let Sector

In the last year the private rented sector continued to be in the news. At LettingFocus.com we are not surprised and landords and suppliers to the private rented sector should not be surprised either. A key reason is of course Housing Benefit, (or Local Housing Allowance (LHA) as it is known when private landlords are involved), and it is the […]

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Local Housing Allowance Concessions Likely and Innovative Thinking Sought from Lenders

I hope you are not too bored by our coverage of the Housing Benefit story. If you are an organisation or public body and are providing / selling services or products to the private rented sector, you should still be riveted because it has big implications for the whole market. Even if you are a landlord who never lets to […]

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Private Sector Leasing and Housing Association Lease Schemes for Landlords A Story of Guaranteed Rent and No Voids

Do you want to know a secret? Well, it’s not actually a secret at all but it’s something that’s been kept a bit quiet up to now. (And true to form the mainstream press has not reported it.) So what’s the story? Well, from October 2011, Housing Benefit / Local Housing Allowance rates will be set at the 30th percentile […]

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