Graham Norwood
Editor of LLT and LAT since January...
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Neil, I was just thinking the same thing. If the couple had a mortgage the government wouldn't give a hoot and they would be expected to repay it. Generation Rant would be totally ignored, but because we are landlords they want to jump all over us. PRS landlords tend to be more flexible than big corporations. I once let a tenant out of a AST after 1 month as they had split up due to me being friends with her parents. It cost me more in estate agent fees than I received in rent. I won't do it again. Tenants are in for 1 hell of a shock when the big boys take over :D and the government will just look the other way and accept the payments that they are being given.
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2.8 million new instructions- who wants some? While preparing a submission for the at the time unannounced CLG inquiry in PRS (CLG only told their friends) I did some number crunching in the hope of adding a positive input into a department that is seemingly bereft of any experience of the Private rented sector and almost allergic to anyone who has. I identified that a 100,000 tenancy provision by private landlords into the assisted tenancy market (pensions and benefits) was worth approaching £1 billion to landlords. One hundred thousand tenancies was a deliberately small percentage ; an easy , appropriately sized sample to make the point rather than a scientifically calculated figure. It represented about 1.4% of the middle ground between PRS and social housing that many agencies and landlords steer clear of. Subsequent research (discussion) shows that about 40% of assisted tenants are no worse at paying their rent than anyone else. Essentially what that means is that there is an additional £28 billion rental opportunity for those prepared to engage the sector. Increasing the PRS provision by up to by 70% is surely a good start in solving the housing crisis. It will obviously put a large rental income in the pocket of those who can afford to buy to rent out, it will put a large commission income in the pockets of those servicing the industry but moreover it will add the incentive to have another 2.8 million private rented sector properties available to ease the housing crisis. Obviously that will leave the remaining 60% of the sector to house but it seems reasonable that government doesn’t attempt to privatise their entire housing obligation, such schemes tend to lead to civil unrest. There will be natural envy at the rich seemingly exploiting the poor, I am not getting into the social ethics of a solution, simply suggesting how a set of government departments could set about solving issues in an industry they don’t properly understand.
Graham Norwood
Editor of LLT and LAT since January...