6:25 AM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago 42
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It’s bizarre, isn’t it? Landlords, already battered by a barrage of legislative changes and economic pressures, are now being asked by the Labour government to offer their properties to asylum seekers.
The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) has voiced strong opposition, saying the government needs to support us if they want more homes to become available.
For landlords, the Home Office request feels like a bitter irony – a government that has systematically squeezed the PRS now seeks its help to address a problem of its own making.
Britain’s housing crisis is no secret. With rents rocketing and house prices soaring to over eight times the average salary, young and working-age Britons are struggling to afford homes.
The tax burden, the highest since World War II, weighs heavily on these same citizens, who see their contributions funnelled into government-supported housing for asylum seekers.
Around 99% of migrants arriving via small boats claim asylum, gaining access to accommodation, healthcare, education and a weekly allowance of around £50.
While this might be less contentious if housing were abundant, the reality is different: every property allocated to an asylum seeker is one less for a British family priced out of the market.
For landlords, the government’s appeal to house asylum seekers – facilitated through contractors like Serco – comes against a backdrop of relentless policy changes.
The loss of Section 24 means landlords can no longer fully deduct interest on buy to let (BTL) mortgages, slashing profitability.
The abolition of Section 21 will make evictions a costly, drawn-out process, leaving landlords vulnerable to months of lost rent.
The end of Assured Shorthold Tenancies, with their six-month minimum, allows tenants to leave early, further destabilising income streams.
Add to this the Renters’ Rights Bill (RRB) and the looming EPC C standard, which applies only to the PRS and not to social or council housing. These measures feel like targeted attacks, designed to force landlords to sell up.
Why, then, would landlords volunteer to house asylum seekers?
Many of us feel betrayed, having worked hard to build property portfolios only to face what could be seen as punitive legislation.
The NRLA’s frustration echoes a broader sentiment: the government cannot expect cooperation from a sector it has consistently undermined and belittled us (even when they say ‘not all landlords’ are bad…).
The housing of asylum seekers also raises questions about fairness.
Right to Rent checks, a legal obligation for PRS landlords in England, obviously won’t need to be applied when government contractors are involved.
I imagine that some of the new rules under RRB won’t be enforced either.
This double standard will fuel resentment, as most landlords face strict compliance burdens while others will appear to be exempt.
Meanwhile, the government’s reliance on private rentals to house asylum seekers – often at a cost of £145 per night for hotel accommodations when properties aren’t available – highlights its failure to address the root causes of migration and housing shortages.
Tenants, too, are caught in the crossfire. The government’s push to regulate the PRS, cheered on by groups like Shelter and Acorn, has led to an exodus of landlords.
As properties are sold, rental stock dwindles, leaving tenants scrambling for homes.
The irony is that the very policies meant to protect renters may be pricing them out of the market or, worse, making them homeless.
When tenants finally realise that government actions have reduced their housing options, the relentless narrative blaming ‘greedy landlords’ may lose its shine.
The social contract – where citizens contribute through taxes in exchange for support, especially in later life – is slowly fraying.
Landlords, like other taxpayers, see their tax contributions being used to outbid them in their own market, as the government secures private rentals for asylum seekers.
This will breed resentment, not just among landlords but among young Britons who feel their sacrifices are unrewarded. I’m already seeing this on my social media feeds.
The migration debate, already heated, is ignited further by the optics of newcomers receiving homes while locals languish on waiting lists.
For landlords, the decision to house asylum seekers is understandably fraught.
On the one hand, guaranteed rental income from (lucrative) government contracts could be appealing.
On the other, the risks – potential property damage, bureaucratic hurdles and a public backlash – loom large. Just read the experiences of other landlords.
Many landlords I know are simply unwilling to engage with a government they feel has declared war on their livelihoods.
The solution lies not in cajoling landlords but in addressing the housing crisis and migration policy holistically – and honestly.
Building more homes, streamlining asylum processes and restoring fairness in the PRS would do more to ease tensions than appeals to a beleaguered sector.
Until then, landlords will remain sceptical, and the divide between government and the PRS will only widen. This will not, I predict, end well.
Until next time,
The Landlord Crusader
Downsize Government
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Sign Up9:32 AM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't the government offering 5 year fixed contracts to house the asylum seekers?
But then at the same time ending fixed term tenancies?
How does that work?
John Parkinson
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Sign Up9:32 AM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
Perhaps if I give Serco my EPC D & E properties they will hand them back as a C+ in five years! (10 Years who knows).
Suicide Jockey
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Sign Up9:38 AM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
Any landlord who takes up this governments offer to house illegal migrants is complicit in this governments devious plan to change the structure of our cultural way of life.
Its wrong, very wrong for true British renters to be kicked in the teeth by this Liebour government like this. Who wouldn't like to have there rent and all bills paid by the government but when you don't have a right to rent and have entered the country illegally you are a criminal and you get everything for £0.00,free....its abhorrent!
You would have to be a real low life landlord to even think about taking this crazy offer up, but I bet there's a lot of "I couldn't care less" landlords out there.
Landlords should be publicly named and shamed if they house any Illegal migrants.
Thank goodness that Reform are on the march, they will hopefully save this country from the complete madness that we are living under one day.
H PH
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Sign Up10:29 AM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
Why can't the government offer these 5-year fixed contracts to residents of this country? Whose side will the government be on when it comes to evicting asylum seekers?
dismayed landlord
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Sign Up10:38 AM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by Suicide Jockey at 02/05/2025 - 09:38
From my personal experience I would not get into any deal with any local Authority or any scheme dreamt up by any government.
There will be some greedy landlords thinking this is a get rich easy money and actually believe the property will be returned in good condition. It’s all lies. Been there. Got the tee shirt. Bought into the propaganda.
Let the greedy ones do it and learn the hard way.
Yes it is also morally wrong at so many levels
But if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.
So sorry for genuine tenants who cannot get a decent home from decent landlords but as posted on here many times - you reap what you sow.
Thank you shelter, the other anti landlord so called tenant supporting bodies, the media witch hunt and the government policies all demonising good landlords. You got your result. Now live with it.
Stella
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Sign Up11:08 AM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by dismayed landlord at 02/05/2025 - 10:38
Yes it is their mess let them deal with it!
It is morally wrong the way they have vilified good landlords forcing them to sell up because of legislation that is sucking the lifeblood out of the industry.
Why then should they expect us to help them?
NewYorkie
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Sign Up11:54 AM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
My final rental is now void, and I am currently redecorating and re-carpeting throughout. I would love to sell and exit the sector, but I can't due to joint ownership 'issues'. So I will be re-letting. But will I let my pristine flat to someone who not only shouldn't be here, but is used to living in a s**thole?
David100
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Sign Up13:56 PM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
30 pieces of silver, to betray locals needing somewhere to live.
Shameful.
Beaver
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Sign Up14:39 PM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by Suicide Jockey at 02/05/2025 - 09:38
Many years ago before we were obliged as landlords to check whether tenants had rights of residency I was renting to a tenant who was a single mum on benefits, but from a different continent from whom we are now seeing an increased number of illegal migrants. I didn't then have to check whether the lady was eligible either for residency OR benefits. Now the situation has changed such that if a tenant isn't eligible for benefits the council can come and get the money back off me, even though I don't have the powers to check eligibility.
With this particular tenant the property was about an hour's drive from where I live and I was managing the property directly. But the tenant was a great tenant. Never any problem, always paid on time and in full, always got on with the neighbours, very nice and polite...great mum with a very well behaved child. So I rarely had any need to visit the property and had no idea what was going on there until she left at high speed without giving notice..one of the neighbours told me that the immigration people were after her.
The tenant sent me a thank you letter saying what a great landlord I had been and what a nice house it was. The lack of notice didn't bother me because the house was immaculate and she was paid up in advance. When I took the property back there were lots of letters from unpaid creditors. There was also evidence to say that she was moonlighting for cash.
None of this was of any concern to me as I had been paid and I still had an immaculate property. The tenant was to date one of my two BEST EVER TENANTS (the other best ever tenant was also a single mum on benefits).
Now the situation is different and I NEVER take benefits claimants because the government has made it far too risky for me as the landlord. When I was renting this property out I was still able to offset my finance costs against rents but it only just broke even much of the time; now I would have been making a loss (especially during the void periods) over the 5 years that I had the property.
When I managed this particular property it was about an hours drive. But if I had property in say the North East, or the North West and was in similar circumstances then taking the Serco contract and letting them rent my house out for me, manage the tenants, maintain the property and guarantee my income would actually be a NO-BRAINER.
And in terms of the morality of it for any landlord considering doing it this isn't your fault. If you are a small portfolio landlord with a mortgaged property then you have been victimised by both this labour government and the last conservative government. So you can rent with a clear conscience. It isn't your fault that you have been victimised by government. And it also isn't your fault that some incompetent idiot in power just handed Serco a contract that makes it massively more attractive with the forthcoming Renters Rights Bill to rent to asylum seekers than to people who've always been here.
What the government should do is to insist that Serco offers the same deal to social housing tenants as they offer to asylum seekers. If not then they are genuinely discriminating against people who already have the right to live and work here.
But if they don't do it then that's not your fault as a landlord...
John Parkinson
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Sign Up14:49 PM, 2nd May 2025, About 3 weeks ago
Reply to the comment left by Suicide Jockey at 02/05/2025 - 09:38
Its already started - have a look on youtube.