Landlords: Should I stay or should I sell?

The Clash song ‘Should I stay or should I go’ should become the anthem for landlords everywhere because the chasm between Britain’s private landlords and the Westminster bubble has never been wider. On one side stand millions of ordinary people, often pensioners, self-employed workers or families, who have shouldered the nation’s housing burden for decades.

On the other side are MPs, tenant advocacy groups and a Labour government that treats landlords as public enemy number one.

Reading about Parliamentary debates this week on Property118 is not to read about policy issues but one-sided trench warfare.

It’s one thing to talk about the Renters’ Rights Act as a long overdue rebalancing of the sector, even a victory for fairness but there’s an inconvenient truth that the clowns in Westminster seem unable, or unwilling, to acknowledge.

When you make providing homes unworkable, fewer homes get provided.

Landlords invest for their futures

No one appreciates that small landlords are not faceless corporations and most of us are ordinary people who invested for retirement or for family security.

Many did so because self-employment offered no pension, no sick pay and no safety net.

We borrowed, maintained properties, paid tax in more ways than most people realise – this includes income tax, CGT, stamp duty, VAT on repairs – and we’ve housed millions without costing the state a penny in capital expenditure.

And for what?

The Labour government still appears genuinely surprised that landlords are selling.

This isn’t hearsay, the data has been there for years, including from bodies like Propertymark.

This week it revealed that the PRS is dominated by older, small scale landlords who are moving towards retirement.

Let’s face it, many of us simply don’t want the hassle, risk or cost of another sweeping regulatory overhaul layered on top of Making Tax Digital, licensing schemes, compliance creep and punitive enforcement powers.

Selling earlier than planned is now act of self-preservation in the face of what’s coming.

PRS isn’t a charity

I’ve said it before but let’s accept that the unintended consequence of the Renters’ Rights Act is obvious to anyone who has ever run a business.

Being a landlord is not a charity because every extra cost or risk gets priced into the rent.

If costs rise, rents rise and if risk becomes intolerable, supply falls.

That isn’t an unacceptable ideology but basic economics and it’s how markets have worked for decades.

But landlords are treated as if they are hoarding homes out of spite.

It’s ludicrous that penalties of up to £40,000 can be imposed at the discretion of councils and rent repayment orders can claw back up to two years of income for technical breaches.

Throw in confiscation orders and banning orders and more than 2.8 million landlords are subject to a compliance regime that barely existed before 1988.

Landlords forced out

It’s incredible that the housing minister Matthew Pennycook had the audacity to say ‘not all regulation is bad regulation’ when answering a question about regulations forcing landlords out.

Really? On that test, Labour’s current approach has failed by a country mile, especially for tenants on benefits, who will increasingly struggle to find anywhere willing to take them once risk and arrears become harder to manage.

In the 1980s, becoming a landlord was seen as aspiration and a way to take control, work hard and invest in the future.

For me, that dream has been slowly dismantled by the politics of envy.

Landlords are vulnerable since we carry personal debt, regulatory risk and unlimited liability without the protections that almost everyone else in the housing system enjoys.

The tedious narrative paints us as villains but we are still desperately needed to house people and keep the lights on.

So, when will ministers answer this simple question: When more small landlords sell, where exactly do the tenants go?

Social housing waiting lists are already bursting and build to rent cannot fill the gap fast enough.

If the goal is to punish landlords, fine but say it openly and don’t pretend the regulations help tenants.

Because when the last small landlord switches off the lights, it will not be MPs or campaign groups looking for somewhere to live.

Just to give another nod to The Clash, I think their other lyrics really sum up what’s going on for landlords today: ‘If I go, there will be trouble, And if I stay, it will be double, So come on and let me know.’

Until next time,

The Landlord Crusader