Nigel Farage has admitted he may be forced to sell his rental property due to Labour’s proposed Renters’ Rights Bill.
Speaking on GB News, Farage criticised the legislation, calling it a “huge mistake” and “self-defeating”. He argued that the bill, headed up by deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, could lead to a notable fall in available rental properties.
“I have a property I rent out, but the way it’s going I may just sell it”, Farage said, suggesting that such sales could limit short-term holiday let opportunities.
Farage accepts that there are “rogue landlords” and there are some tenants that get “a rotten deal”, but he insists the real issue is with rents.
The Reform UK party leader commented: “With an exploding population, rents are going through the roof – they’re up about 21% across England over the course of the last four years alone, and that’s an average in some areas – the problem is far more acute, and my real worry is about supply of housing.
“Now, under the last government we saw the first shades of this; pressure coming on those that have got Airbnbs because they’re worried about second homes in Cornwall or whatever it may be.
“But now what is being proposed. I mean, think about this, not just the idea that if somebody is there renting from you, frankly, you haven’t got any means to remove them if you want to. That sort of fixed term contracts would be ended.
“And then you’ve got Ed Miliband EPC certificates where you’ve got to bring your house up to a certain environmental standard by 2030 which certainly with older properties, would cost a huge amount of money.
“And you’ve also, of course, had the tax changes the Conservatives brought in, for example, if you have a mortgage on a buy to let property, you can’t write that cost off.
“So what’s happening? What’s happening all over the country is people that own buy to let properties are saying, ‘You know what, it’s not worth it. I’d rather sell.’
“That decreases the supply, and that means rents go even higher. So I think this is a very self defeating piece of legislation, even though I understand the intentions behind it.
“I’ve got a property that I rent out, but you know what? The way it’s going, I may well just sell it. It’ll be bought by a private person and that and that, and that opportunity for people to take it and use it for a short term let for holiday won’t exist. Who’s the winner in that?
“There is an appeals process against [no fault evictions] and that would kind of go to a court, a junior court, that would decide it, and look, I understand, I repeat the point.
“I understand the point that if you’re a tenant that is effectively being asked to leave, it may be deeply inconvenient and difficult for you, but against that, rights or property ownership are one of the absolutely fundamental freedoms that we treasure in the free world.
“And I think what we’re doing, both the last government and this, we’re encroaching upon that. That, I think, is a mistake and wrong in principle.
“But the biggest problem, I repeat, is all that will happen with this legislation is there will be fewer and fewer properties on the market to rent at a time. And we saw the figures just yesterday, when the British population, through net migration, is exploding.”
