Is there a dim light at the end of the tunnel for East Midlands landlords ? This week we have seen another little indicator that the penny is about to drop in Westminster. The Minister for the Private Rented Sector, Felicity Buchan MP, sent a letter to the Levelling Up, Housing & Communites Committee making a surprising admission. In her letter the Minister states clearly “that demand is currently outstripping the supply of properties available to let” – an ongoing crisis which the National Residential Landlords Association has drawn attention to over recent months.
The NRLA has issued its own response to the Minister’s acknowledgement of the many issues currently impacting the market. Responding to these comments, Chris Norris, Policy Director for the National Residential Landlords Association, said:
“We welcome the Minister’s recognition of the supply crisis in the private rented sector, but the Government needs to rectify the mistakes it has made in causing this. Since 2015 successive Chancellors have sought to choke off investment in the market with a series of tax hikes. All this has achieved is to cut supply whilst demand continues to soar for fewer and fewer properties. The ultimate losers in this are tenants, who are finding it more difficult to access the homes they need.
“We cannot continue to limp along without a pro-growth strategy which embraces tax measures to support investment and ensure renters can find a place to call home.”
The reality is we are a long way from landlords expanding their buy to let portfolios, we need to see a physical change in legislation that equalises the landlord tenant relationship. Presently it is all one way traffic, and the result is a mass exodus of rental properties from the private rental sector. The Build to Rent sector cannot move quickly enough to replace these lost properties and their focus is on the major conurbations with the rest of the UK thrown into long term crisis. East Midlands landlords may suffer as a result of Build to Rent in cities like Derby and Nottingham but elsewhere in the region the demand is huge for what they offer.
Hopefully these drip drip protests will result in the penny dropping and a change in the thought processes at Westminster. If not, rents will continue to rise well above inflation as landlords take full advantage of the supply crisis in order to maximise returns and offset the additional costs incurred by recent legislation.
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