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 moreMany local authorities and other public bodies are looking into setting up their own not-for-profit letting agencies to house people in the private rented sector. Sometimes these initiatives are called private rented sector access schemes. Most private landlords and /or commercial letting agencies would normally turn these types of tenants away, so this is quite a challenge. At LettingFocus, we […]
Read moreIncredible though it may seem, many landlords entrusted to middlemen companies who said they would find them tenants and pay a guaranteed rent for a period of 3 or more years. Now, it seems, a few of these companies appears to have gone bust taking all the housing benefit rent money that had been paid over by the councils with […]
Read moreLettingFocus despairs of the approach adopted by one London Council in dealing with its private rented sector. We have just been sent an invitation to tender from a London local authority. In the invitation they identify that they need to do some work to improve their local private rented sector, which now forms a substantial 30% plus of all housing […]
Read moreLocal authority schemes to attract private landlords to let to people with few housing options often fail. Here at LettingFocus, we explain why. I was invited to speak at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Homelessness conference in Nottingham last week. This is a big national event to which around 140 local authority and housing association staff from all around […]
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 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 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 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 […]
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