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Landlords lose confidence in Government’s approach to housing
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
House share portal SpareRoom has conducted a series of polls for insight about the UK rental market.
One poll revealed that 94% of landlords have no confidence in the current Government’s approach to housing. Another found 36% of respondents plan to reduce their portfolio this year and a further 16% plan to leave the rental market entirely in 2022.
In a third poll by SpareRoom they asked landlords and agents what they believe will most likely help the rental market. The responses included:
- Reverse the changes to buy to let mortgage interest tax relief – 72%
- Scrap the 3% Stamp Duty surcharge for landlords – 66%
- Scrap the Renters Reform Bill – 56%
- Better enforcement on criminal landlords – 45%
- Build more houses – 43%
- Make the rogue landlord database public – 42%
- Introduction of a national landlord register – 22%
- Freeze rents – 4%
The final poll revealed that the Government has almost entirely lost the confidence of tenants too, with 95% saying they have no confidence in the Government’s approach to housing.
Matt Hutchinson, SpareRoom director, comments: “The UK is currently in the grip of a rental crisis. Demand for rooms is at an all-time high, while supply has dropped to a 9-year low. That’s making life incredibly hard for tenants trying to find a place to live.
“Government’s plan to squeeze smaller buy to let landlords out of the market seems to be working, but there doesn’t seem to be a plan to replace them with an alternative. Unless something changes, we’re looking at a very bleak period for the rental market. If it’s not working for landlords and it’s not working for tenants, the question has to be, who is it working for?”
