A complaint about OpenRent article on landlords maximising profits

Booming Rental Market: How OpenRent Landlords Are Maximising Profits

Dear OpenRent team,

I object to your article for several reasons. Firstly, the whole tone of ‘landlords maximising profits’ and ‘How Much Can a Landlord Increase Rent in 2023?’ are not helpful or correct – there is double digit real inflation (methods of measurement have been adjusted several times following the start of the invasion of Ukraine and that war) which not a single journalist or you in this case use in the context of ‘rents increasing by 19%, 27% or even 46%’.

Rents are with data I see and can verify, only just keeping up with inflation – and as there is leverage of 80-60% and interest rates doubling or more, that leads to lower landlord profits. And you are forgetting non-incorporated landlords can no longer deduct mortgage interest so are terribly and often terminally suffering from making losses yet paying taxes.

Secondly, Shelter and other less well-informed organisations busy demonising landlords will grab hold of these for landlords very unhelpful sales emails you are sending and further incorrectly fuelling the anti-landlord rhetoric.

I noticed you raised prices from £29 to £49 for your basic service of putting adverts out online. I hope you are not using that to pay for the daft person writing these stupid emails and that you will refrain from such counterproductive articles. Journalists read this – they influence mainstream media – more tenants citing that and working against landlords – stop doing that please.

Most landlords – including myself – raise just by inflation only – and have not even passed on the higher energy bills (which I as landlord pay for my tiny HMO business). Tenants are suffering from high energy bills. Let’s be sensitive on how we all communicate as people are with emails like yours, led to believe that we are profiteers or something when all we really notice is twice the work for half the money and increased energy, insurance, interest costs.

I would have expected you to use your brains before having a probably 26-year-old inexperienced marketer write this – I expect you to be a thinking organisation aimed at helping landlords as well as tenants.

Kind regards,

Accommodation Provider