Daily Telegraph wants to talk to landlords not raising rents

I have not raised rents for my tenants due to the cost of living at the moment. But will have to reconsider when the mortgages become up for renewal in 2024.

Reply to the comment left by andy sho at 24/01/2023 – 14:01
I tended not to raise rents as my tennant tend to move on every 3 years. I now have some going into longer terms and I have warned them I have to do a rent review as I have so many outgoings with leccie certs new contracts to migrate to and my maintenance costs have rocketed. A job that was done previously on a development of flats that cost 100k for 6 blocks is now being quoted 120k per block. So I just can’t absorb it anymore.

Reply to the comment left by andy sho at 24/01/2023 – 14:01
Although admirable, would it not be better to have two smaller rises than one bigger rise? It will help your tenants better manage their finances..

As with many landlords we incurred substantial voids during the, now evidently, wholly unneccesary “lockdowns” and took the strategic position of retaining good tenants by rolling over renewals at the same rate, not wholly altrustic.

Since then we have not sought to chase rents up as is evidenced in many of the “built for renters” new builds but to make more modest adjustments aimed at sustainability to take account of increasing finance and repair/maintenance costs.

We think the imposition of a rental cap as in in Scotland will lead to the cap being exercised at every renewal, it is a blunt instrument and wholly misguided being blind to individual circumstances.

I did not increase my tenants’ rent when their contract expired in November. In fact, I gave them a £500 Christmas ‘cost of living’ discount, which left them speechless, but very happy. I have two children in their twenties myself, and feel very sorry for young people.

We don’t do regular rent increases for good tenants. Most of our tenants are decent so they benefit from zero rent increases over the tenancy period. Essentially rewarding their decency.

That MAY have to change if our costs continue to escalate. We could lose a decent tenant or two if we did push rent up to current market rate…..the void period could wipe out any gain we might have got from increasing rent.

Voids cost a lot!

We have three fairly long-term tenants in our properties, who pay their rent on time and generally take care of their property. We felt that even a small increase in rent would just exacerbate the pressure on their costs of living position. We have therefore not applied any increase in order to give a little back.