Rents across the country are continuing to rise – ringing alarm bells as affordability becomes an increasing issue for tenants.
Only London continues to buck the national trend of rising rents, according to ARLA Propertymark, which warns that further rent hikes are likely because of Government intervention in the market.
The membership body’s February Private Rented Sector report found that only 8% of agents based in London said rents went up last month, compared with the national average of 25%.
Meanwhile, a quarter of London-based agents saw rents decrease last month, compared to just one in ten nationally.
Across the UK, the number of properties letting agents managed per branch decreased by 5% to 183, from a high of 193 in January.
But this was still up from 176 properties managed per branch this time last year.
Assessing demand in February, members reported 34 prospective tenants per branch. This is the same number as January, but down year on year with 37 registered in February 2016 and 40 in February 2015.
David Cox, chief executive of ARLA Propertymark, said: “The fact that rent prices in London are bucking the national trend is a positive sign for both renters and prospective renters in the capital.
“However, this isn’t being seen across the rest of the country, as the national average for the number of agents reporting rent hikes rings alarm bells. While London’s results indicate a step in the right direction, it must be taken with a pinch of salt.
“The imminent withdrawal of mortgage interest relief and the Government’s decision to ban letting agent fees, taken together, will more than likely have the opposite effect on rental costs across the country, especially if an outright ban is imposed.
“The costs of the services provided by letting agents will need to be recouped and will inevitably be passed on to renters through increased rent.”
Like most full-time landlords I have had a policy (since Day 1 of starting my business) that I do not raise rents on a sitting tenant. The value of a good tenant over a few extra quid is immeasurable. However I have no choice due to Section 24 of the 2015 Finance Act (the removal of offsetting MIR, aka the Tenant Tax). My rents on very long-standing tenancies are increasing and the occupants are being made fully aware as to why.
Yesterday in Parliament, Derek Thomas MP asked a question to Jane Ellison (Financial Secretary to the Treasury) and within that question he referred to ‘the tenant tax’. Ms Ellison answered the query with the usual guff that the Treasury come out with, but by doing so she accepted the term of Tenant Tax. So Government is fully aware of what they are doing then. They are taxing tenants and they know it.
The ones that will lose out most are those that are on low incomes as they will likely lose their homes. We’ve been saying this since Osborne announced the tax change but the £ signs in the Chancellor’s eyes have overcome the common sense one would hope would prevail. The monetary cost will fall on Local Government as they try and wipe up the mess with emergency accommodation. Homelessness will become a National disgrace (if it isn’t already). How shortsighted can our Government get???
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Just in case no one has noticed. George Osborne’s grasp of mathematics is poor.
He has taken 6 different jobs and thinks he can do them all.
George Osborne’s SIX jobs
1. Member of Parliament – Osborne earns £76,000-a-year representing the 65,000 people living in his constituency of Tatton in Cheshire.
2. Consultant – He pockets £650,000 for working one day a week at the American financial giant, BlackRock.
3. Editor – He is due to become editor of the Evening Standard in May. His salary has not been revealed.
4. Academic – He took an estimated £120,000-a-year academic position as the first ever Kissinger Fellow at the Arizona-based McCain Institute for International Leadership
5. Chairman – He has an unpaid role in charge of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a body aimed at creating jobs in the north of England.
6. Speaker – The 45-year-old has made £786,450 from 14 speeches given mostly to banks and other City institutions since leaving Number 11.
Peanlising landlords and taxing tenants demonstrates that he had no grasp of either mathematics or reality.
Sadly nobody in the Treasury has the force of personality to right this wrong.
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Once (if?) Shelter get their wicked way and ban tenant fees but realise that rents continue to rise as supply of rental property drops further I am sure that they will move on to rent caps.
They then push through a cap on rent increases using ‘independent’ surveys to back their case, but rents continue to rise as the supply of rented properties continues to dwindle until only a few thousand landlords remain in the country.
Undeterred, Shelter move on to campaign for banning stamp duty for ex-tenants who wish to purchase by force (sorry, ‘right’) the properties they occupy. Even this doesn’t work as rents continue to rise. There are riots as applicants fight over the last 50 remaining rental properties available in the country.
Very shortly there are no private rental properties remaining and half of Shelter’s generation rent campaign team spontaneously combust as their hype and bile has no outlet left.
The other half are saved when they join their loony left colleagues to campaign for nationalisation of all property – provided it is given free to sitting tenants.
‘Doomed, doomed, we’re all doomed I say’
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