Private Rented Sector Buy to Let Consultants
I was quoted extensively at the Guardian Housing Network blog last week and I think it is worth highlighting the key points I made. Why the PRS is in the News 1. The private rented sector (PRS) is increasingly in the news and will remain so, partly because of its growing size and partly because of rising rent levels, which […]
Read moreDavid Lawrenson of LettingFocus worries about Ken Livingston’s idea of rent controls and says that that accreditation and registration schemes for landlords are not needed because the vast majority of landlord and tenants enjoy good relations and the minority of rogue landlords will never register anyway. Oh dear, oh dear, I spend a nice day at a CIH Conference telling […]
Read moreSummary: The government’s plan to normally pay the Local Housing Allowance part of the planned Universal Credit to tenants (not to landlords) reminds us of the film “Groundhog Day”. Haven’t we been here before and did we not learn from what happened last time? The Universal Credit was first announced at the Conservative Party Conference in 2010, though the idea […]
Read moreKey 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 […]
Read morePeople often ask me “What sort of tenants should I pick?” My answer is “Well, that depends upon what type of property you have and what the local market demand (and supply) is like.” Of course, if you are any good at this business you’ll know to check where the tenant demand is likely to come from before you buy. […]
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 moreThe forthcoming Local Housing Allowance (LHA) caps and reductions have brought with them a range of technical and practical issues, including also impacts on landlords who never let to LHA tenants. Statutory instruments SI #2835 2010 (which came into force 1 April 2011) allow local authorities slightly more discretion about whether to pay LHA directly to landlords. It states that […]
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 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 moreSometimes 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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