Land Release Fund Embraced By Councils

The DLUHC has released £57.8 million to councils in order to develop quality housing. Councils have received 80 per cent of the £75 million Brownfield Land Release Fund (BLRF), meaning financial support has been made available to 53 councils across the nation to boost local areas through the transformation of unloved and disused sites. According to the DLUHC (formerly the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government) there could be up to 17,000 jobs supported across the housing and construction sector as well as the wider economy. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.propertymark.co.uk/resource/land-release-fund-embraced-by-councils.html

New Regulator Introduced As Building Safety Bill Published

The Building Safety Bill, published 5 July, outlines the biggest changes to building safety regulation in a generation by introducing a Building Safety Regulator to oversee a new safety regime for high-rise residential homes in response to the Grenfell fire tragedy. By simplifying the system using a ‘golden thread’ of information to be created, stored and updated throughout the building’s development, the Bill will establish clear obligations on owners and enable swift action to be taken by the Regulator. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.propertymark.co.uk/resource/new-regulator-introduced-as-building-safety-bill-published.html

Legal Support Pilot For Housing Disrepair

Online support to help resolve housing disrepair issues in the private rented sector (PRS) has been launched in England and Wales guiding tenants to establish what the issues are and offer tailored information and signposting. The pilot aims to help tenants understand their rights and responsibilities and identify appropriate next steps to resolve their issues before they escalate. The UK Government is exploring several changes across the full breadth of legal support, focusing on what legal support works for the people who need it. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.propertymark.co.uk/resource/uk-government-launches-legal-support-pilot-for-housing-disrepair.html 

Financial Support Package Needed Now To Address COVID-Related Arrears

Propertymark, alongside other organisations, has written to the Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing, Eddie Hughes MP, to emphasise the sector's ongoing concerns over COVID-related rent arrears and urging the UK Government to come forward with a package of emergency financial support. The organisations have provided a briefing to the Minister which explains why renters and landlords whose finances have been affected since the start of lockdown measures in March 2020 cannot keep tenancies going without additional financial support. Measures from the UK Government have provided some short-term relief but have not done enough to protect renters going forward. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/june-2021/financial-support-package-needed-now-to-address-covid-related-arrears/

Changes To Right To Rent Checks From 1 July

The Home Office has released a draft revised Right to Rent Code of Practice in readiness for changes to checks in England, from 1 July 2021. A draft code has been published with updates that reflect the introduction of the new Regulations, making a number of changes that come into force after 1 July 2021. In broad terms, from 1 July agents will move from checking nationality to checking the UK immigration status of all adult applicants. From this point, if someone is an EEA, EU, or Swiss national, you will need to see evidence of their UK immigration status rather than their national identification. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/june-2021/changes-to-right-to-rent-checks-from-1-july/ 

Leasehold Reform Bill Published

The Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill has been published and when implemented aims to help tackle inconsistency and ambiguity of ground rents for future leaseholders. The UK Government is introducing the Bill so that ground rents in new residential long leases in England will have no financial demand for all future qualifying leases and that leaseholders do not face unfair terms or significant ground rent liabilities. The first reading took place on 12 May which started the Bill's journey through the House of Lords. However, no further scheduled dates are in place for future readings to finalise the legislation. Read more on the Arla website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/may-2021/leasehold-reform-bill-published/

Data Shows Green Homes Grant Scheme Inefficiencies

Data released by the DBEIS shows that, despite receiving over 100,000 applications, only a small amount of pay-outs were actually made during its lifetime. The Scheme was designed to help homeowners and landlords improve the energy efficiency of their property, but after the announcement earlier in April that applications are now closed, there is a real need for an alternative plan from Government to help support the drive to cut UK carbon emissions. Since its launch last September 2020, the Scheme attracted a total of 113,700 applications, with 10,300 measures installed but only 6,700 homes receiving the money from the Scheme so far, way off the original target of 600,000 homes. Read more on the Arla website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/april-2021/uk-government-data-shows-green-homes-grant-scheme-inefficiencies/

New Year Surge In Demand From Prospective Tenants

The number of new prospective tenants soared 27 per cent in the New Year according to figures released over the weekend from the Association of Residential Letting Agents. The increase was from 64 in December to an average 81 per agency branch in January. Year-on-year this is marginally lower than in January 2020 when the figure stood at 88 but is higher than January 2019 when the figure stood at 73. Read more on the Letting Agent Today website.

https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2021/2/new-year-surge-in-demand-from-prospective-tenants 

Demand From Tenants Continues To Reach Record Levels

Propertymark’s Private Rented Sector Report for August shows a record-breaking month with the number of new prospective tenants continuing to rise, along with the average letting agent branch registering 101 new tenants, breaking July’s previous record. 208 rental properties were available per letting agent branch in August. This remained the same as the record-high figure recorded in July, which beat the previous record of 192 properties managed per letting agent branch in July 2017. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/september-2020/demand-from-tenants-continues-to-reach-record-levels/ 

Government Announces Another Extension To Evictions Ban

The MHCLG has confirmed that it is to extend the ban in England on evictions to 20 September and will also introduce six-month long notice periods that will run until 31 March 2021. The ban, which was announced in March because of the Coronavirus pandemic, is currently due to end of 23 August. It has also been confirmed that once the courts do re-open, only serious cases including those involving anti-social behaviour and domestic abuse will be prioritised. The further four-week extension will allow for further work to be done to prepare before the ban is lifted and mean that landlords will continue to be unable to start proceedings to evict tenants. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/august-2020/government-announces-another-extension-to-evictions-ban/ 

Government Funding For Tenancies For Vulnerable People

Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, announced on Saturday, 18 July, a £266 million package to support vulnerable people into long term accommodation. The funding is part of the Next Steps Accommodation Programme which has been created to cover property costs and support new tenancies for homeless people and rough sleepers, who were provided with accommodation during the lockdown period. Local Authorities and London Boroughs can now apply for the funding which is expected to support around 15,000 people. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/july-2020/government-funding-for-tenancies-for-vulnerable-people/

Rent Increases Fall To All Time Low As Landlords Continue To Battle Pandemic

The latest data and analysis from ARLA Propertymark has revealed that the number of tenants experiencing rent increases fell to 14% during May – the lowest on record as landlords take the brunt of the pandemic. According to research, many landlords have chosen not to increase rents in an effort to recognise the financial difficulties facing many tenants as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown. As a result, the number of tenants experiencing rent increases fell to 14% in May – the lowest since records began. Read more on Property Reporter.

https://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/rent-increases-fall-to-all-time-low-as-landlords-continue-to-battle-pandemic.html

Budget Fails Tenants Say Landlords

Tenants will continue to face a rental supply crisis as the Chancellor’s Budget has today failed to boost the supply of privately rented homes. Following years of tax hikes on the sector, organisations including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Hamptons International, Zoopla and ARLA Propertymark have warned that private sector rents are set to rise as the demand for such homes outstrips supply. The Residential Landlords Association and the National Landlords Association warn that this only makes it harder for tenants to save for a home of their own. Read more on the NLA website

https://landlords.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/budget-fails-tenants-say-landlords

Some Letting Agencies Are Wrongly Charging Tenants Fees

Some letting agents appear to be breaching the Tenant Fees Act introduced in June 2019 by charging fees. A couple were charged a £170 checkout fee when vacating their property, despite having renewed the contract after the ban took place. After they pointed out that this was in breach of the act, the agent tried to charge the money as an ‘invoice’, claimed the law doesn’t apply to renewed contracts, and even tried to illegally take it out of the deposit. The agent in question dropped the demand after being reported to the Trading Standards Agency. The agent then blamed the Association of Residential Letting Agents for giving misadvice. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/some-letting-agencies-are-wrongly-charging-tenants-fees

More Tenants Than Ever Seek Housing As Rental Stock Dwindles

ARLA Propertymark’s Private Rented Sector (PRS) report shows that the demand for rental accommodation has reached a record high in January, with an average of 88 prospective tenants registered per member branch. However, the supply of rental stock fell to the lowest level seen in seven months. Demand from tenants in January increased to the highest level on record with 88 prospective tenants per branch compared to 56 the previous month. This means that agents witnessed a 57 per cent increase in the number of tenants registered since December. Year-on-year, demand for rental accommodation has increased by 21 per cent, rising from 73 in January 2019. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/february-2020/more-tenants-than-ever-seek-housing-as-rental-stock-dwindles/

Short-Term Lets Could See Tenants Leave 500,000 Properties

Nearly half a million properties could be left unavailable for residents looking to rent in the private rented sector, as more landlords exit the market and move into short-term lets due to the raft of legislative changes they have been faced with. ARLA Propertymark, in partnership with leading research consultancy Capital Economics, has launched its Impact of Short-Term Lets report, which looks at the scale of the UK’s short-term lets sector and the wider implications on the private rented sector. Download the report from the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/media/1048597/the-impact-of-short-term-lets.pdf

Rents Plummet To Lowest In Eight Months

ARLA Propertymark’s Private Rented Sector (PRS) report shows the number of tenants experiencing rent rises fell dramatically with 32 per cent of agents witnessing landlords increasing them in November. This is the lowest figure since March 2019. However, year-on-year, this figure is up from 21 per cent in November 2018, and 16 per cent in November 2017. Read more on the Arla website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/december-2019/rents-plummet-to-lowest-in-eight-months/

Rent Costs Hit Record High

The private rented sector has seen sharp rent increases due to the tenant fees ban, an outflow of landlords from the market, and Brexit uncertainty. The supply of rental accommodation increased in 2019, from 187 on average per branch in 2018, to 197 this year. As landlords continued to feel the pinch, the number of buy-to-let investors selling their properties remained high, at an average of four in 2019. In April, the figure spiked to five per branch. The number of tenants experiencing rent hikes hit a record high this year, rising from an average of 26 per cent each month in 2018, to 46 per cent on average this year. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/december-2019/prs-2019-trends/

Rent Costs Fall But Offer Little Reassurance For Tenants

The number of tenants experiencing rent rises fell by eight percentage points in October with 50 % of agents witnessing an increase in rent prices, down from 58% in September. According to the ARLA Propertymark PRS report for October, this is the lowest figure since June 2019, when the number of tenants experiencing rent rises was 55%. However, year-on-year, this figure is up from 24% in October 2018, and 22% in October 2017. Find the report on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/media/1048509/prs-report-october-2019.pdf

Buy-To-Let Mortgages Stable Despite Slowdown In Market

Latest data has revealed an overall slowdown in mortgages despite the stability in the buy-to-let market with an expected further growth of 1 per cent in the next quarter. Paragon, a lender and savings bank, has recently published their Financial Adviser Confidence Tracking (FACT) Index for the latest quarter (Q3), which has recorded the average number of mortgages introduced in 2019, down 3 per cent in the second quarter, the lowest figure since 2017 - but despite this slowdown, the buy-to-let market has remained relatively stable. Read more on the ARLA website.

https://www.arla.co.uk/news/november-2019/buy-to-let-mortgages-stable-despite-slowdown-in-market/