LRG claims landlords are not walking away from the PRS

Almost a quarter planning on leaving sounds like an issue to me however positive the spin on the rest of the figures.

This may be true of perhaps larger portfolio Landlords but anecdotally that is not what I am seeing. I have friends who are staff at agents local to me and I am hearing time and time again that smaller Landlords are selling up. In addition I am regularly getting enquiries both via Openrent when I advertise and also via word of mouth from people asking if I have anything to rent as their Landlord is selling up. Earlier in the year there were a glut of ex rental properties listed on Rightmove/Zoopla in my local area and very few after selling appeared on the rental market again (altho a few did fail to sell probably because of number available at that time). Interestingly this has tailed off now. I suspect LRG having an vested interest are keen to put a positive spin on the subject.

Reply to the comment left by Paul Essex at 02/10/2025 – 09:24
Correct Paul. The ONS in 2024 estimated there were 5,489,000 privately rented dwellings in Great Britain as at 31 March 2021 there are(probably quite a few less now around 4.6 million is another figure I have seen but nobody seems to know for sure. Counting rental deposits does not count as many landlords don’t bother with taking a deposit as claiming it back is fraught with deposit schemes giving tenants more creedance than landlords.
So taking 4.6 million homes as an indicator with each home housing say two people “only” 22% of landlords leaving could make around 2 million people homeless. How is this no cause for concern? Don’t forget that around 50% of PRS landlords are retired and just don’t want the hassle that the RRB and all the other stuff will bring, especially with huge fines lurking for administrative slip ups. Many of these “mom and pop” landlords using rent as a pension top up are at the cheaper end of the rental market, often charging below market rents, so their displaced tenants will have difficulty finding alternative rented accommodation. Selling up will provide such landlords with the equivalent of many years rent, with no hassle and enough money ”to see them out”.

The RRB is so vague.
1 no date for royal assent
2 no date when RRB likely to start
3 no idea given re’ breathing space time to adjust to new reg’s
4 told database and ombudsman will start after main legislation but no mention how long after!
5 up to £7000 instant fine for initial breaches but no mention of what is a breach.
6 £40,000 fines given to penniless councils due to those at the top messing up – no mention of them being fined!

Speaking with experience of trying to sell a rental through Romans/Leaders it might be because landlords cannot achieve a sale due to their incompetence.
Accepted an offer from a first time buyer 29th April. Romans then dropped the ball and despite repeated requests for action to chase the buyer they didn’t find out until August they didn’t have an approved mortgage in place after all. Then she did.
Now she doesn’t. After months of their utter shambolic service I can’t fund an empty property any longer so it will be rented out again. One very reluctant landlord here who didn’t choose to remain but was let down by a lazy agent more keen to keep the buyer they’d introduced than actually provide a service for the person ultimately responsible for their fee.

LRG has certainly not sent me any survey at all, so I am excluded from their so-called “60% intend to maintain their portfolio”.

My reserch tells me there are more LL leaving the PRS than actively buying them.

However to leave the market, landlords dont get rid of all the proeprty in one year. It takes some time. Last 2 to 3 years people have started leaving the residential investments. Some selling to young investors or corportions and some to owner occupier. Both will help someone to find a home.
However, there is increasing demand which is the gvernment’s responsibility as more people are going to knock on their doors.
LRG needs to look at how the demand is increasing and the supply is decrasing as time goes by.
In 5 years it will be remarkably less accomodation available. Whichever government comes in, the damage will be, as the government is not investing in properties or building any new ones. They are depending on PRS to provide accomodation and at the same time, persistently being unsuportive and making difficult for them understand the work involved to look ter the tennats and their needs.
LRG is getting such percentages from thin air. 22% leaving the market is a large percentage in the scheme of issues for increasing demand, as more people need to be housed.