Landlord confidence plummets amid fears over Labour’s housing policies

Confidence in the rental market dips as landlords fear Labour’s housing policies.

According to a poll by SpareRoom, 79% of landlords think Labour’s proposals to improve the rental market won’t work.

Labour has promised to abolish Section 21 and plans to introduce hardship tests which will make it impossible to evict tenants.

Only 19% of landlords confident in the market

According to the survey, only 19% of landlords said they were confident in the rental market compared to 54% in December 2023.

Spareroom says this marks a significant shift from the past three years during which landlord confidence had been nearly evenly split, with about half feeling confident and the other half uncertain about the market.

Stark contrast in landlord confidence

SpareRoom director Matt Hutchinson said: “There’s a stark contrast in landlord confidence in the rental market now compared to the last three years, and there seems to be little faith in the newly elected government when it comes to housing policy.

“Section 21, which is a valuable concession for landlords, is set to be abolished by our new government, with the Renters Rights Bill aiming also to ban the regulation which could perhaps be a reason for this dip in confidence.

“It will be very interesting to see if confidence grows based on key decisions government makes over the next year, which will naturally also reflect changes in rents across the country.”