The Renters Reform Bill won’t lead to a mass landlord exodus as an army of youngsters are already starting to take older investors’ place.
The Property Sourcing Company’s poll of its 3,000-strong investors and landlords community bfound that while there had been a 74% drop in the number of older, more established buy-to-let landlords during the past year, it was more than compensated by a 181% increase in younger buyers.
The firm also found that the number of professional builders and investors who owned BTL properties remained steady at 27% between June 2022 and June 2023.
It believes that while the end of Section 21 notices has spooked many in the PRS, the Bill will address some of the stress that tenants and landlords feel when dealing with each other.
Huge spike
CEO Jonathan Christie dsays there’s been a huge spike in buy-to-let landlords looking to sell their tenanted properties because of fears they will not be able to evict troublesome tenants.
“However, this is not the case; in fact, the Renters Reform Bill looks to bolster landlord confidence by introducing a structured framework around the eviction process and even introduce new eviction grounds for if a tenant is persistently unable to meet their rent,” he explains.
Landlords will still be able to evict using Section 8 grounds for anti-social behaviour, rent arrears, selling the property or moving into their property. Although there are fears more court work required around Section 8s could end up making evictions take longer and become more expensive, Christie tells LandlordZONE he doesn’t believe this would make much difference to new landlords who had not experienced using Section 21s.
“If Section 8 is set to be law under the Renters Reform Bill, then this is what they will learn and abide by,” he adds.
