The Scottish government is unlikely to meet its target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, according to new research. Research by the Fraser of Allander Institute (FAI) workforce shortages and rising material costs are among the factors putting pressure on housebuilding and making the target increasingly difficult to achieve. The news comes as the […]

Article by Katherine Simpson, Partner at Edwin Coe LLP Over the past year, I have seen more leaseholders move towards Right to Manage (RTM) in response to changes in leasehold reform. It is an interesting example of how uncertainty – primarily in response to the long-awaited draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill but also the […]

Hello, Portugal also has a housing crisis, apparently the stats. say on average people are paying 82% of their incomes in rent! Please see below extracts from Idealist publication, summarising how the government is helping landlords to enter the rental market. It’s almost, whatever recent governments have done here, Portugal is doing the opposite! Renting […]

Small HMO conversions could require planning permission in six more wards under a council’s plan to extend controls across the whole borough. Burnley Council’s executive has been asked to support an Article 4 Direction removing permitted development rights for such conversions. The proposed area covers Briercliffe, Cliviger with Worsthorne, Coalclough with Deerplay, Hapton with Park, […]

Most landlords considering incorporation want to know how they can defer Capital Gains Tax. One landlord is preparing to do the opposite and pay HMRC approximately £200,000 now. Why? Because, according to a LinkedIn post by accountant Alexandre Norian FCCA, the transaction would leave him with a director’s loan account of £2.8 million in the […]

Seven days before HMRC amended its controversial 20-hour guidance for landlord Incorporation Relief, the First-tier Tribunal handed down another property tax judgment which deserves rather more attention than it has received. It is not a Section 162 case and I am not going to pretend that it is, but one part of Alan Pontin & […]

For years, anyone questioning a large housing development near their home has risked being dismissed as a NIMBY. New research from Barclays suggests that caricature is not just lazy. It is probably wrong. In the language of the housing debate, the UK may be far more YIMBY than NIMBY. More than two in five UK […]

Nearly three-quarters of challenged rent increases were set below the landlord’s proposed figure in a sample of tribunal decisions. LonRes examined 200 market rent determinations, including 169 with published reasons and 108 that stated both the proposed and final rent. Among those 108 cases, 73% ended with a lower figure, with a median reduction of […]

There is a piece of arithmetic that a lot of landlords planning a sale this autumn have not done, and I keep running into it. Everyone knows that using Ground 1 or Ground 1A locks you out of the lettings market for twelve months. Almost nobody agrees on when that clock starts and stops. I […]

Hi everyone, After my first request to be exempt from MTD (Making Tax Digital) was denied, I was irked and I appealed. I spoke ‘from the heart’, my utter frustration and anxiety came through without insulting anyone and I am happy to say I have now been exempted due to my age, not ever having […]

A new online tool has been launched to help leaseholders check their lease length and estimate extension costs. The Leasehold Advisory Service has launched a free lease extension calculator which provides leaseholders with personalised information about their remaining lease term. The news comes as, under the Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill, leaseholders will gain stronger […]

Scotland’s housing emergency has been decades in the making, according to estate agent DJ Alexander. Scotland’s largest estate agency has revealed a decline in social housing stock, with the private rented sector increasingly filling the gap. The news comes as Scottish landlords are having to wait up to a year to regain possession of their […]

Landlords considering new-build home purchases are finding developers reluctant to cut asking prices, even when the properties remain unsold for months. Octane Capital found that 25% of new-build homes had been advertised for longer than three months. Its analysis covered a representative sample of more than 1,100 live listings across England. One in eight properties […]

Landlords with homes to let in one county have helped 100 households move into privately rented homes since the start of 2026. To help, the landlords are offered financial help, free paperwork and ongoing support when housing people at risk of homelessness. Dorset council says its Key4Me scheme has seen more than 270 households securing […]

The Renters’ Rights Act has led to landlords increasing asking rents to test the market, claims an estate agent. Chestertons’ lettings report for July reveals a surge in tenant demand after the act was passed, while landlords appear to be testing how far they can push asking rents in a stronger rental market. The Renters’ […]

There have always been bad landlords, just as there are bad operators in every industry, and nobody is suggesting councils shouldn’t act when tenants are being put at risk. But something else appears to be happening in the private rented sector. New research from the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) suggests hostility towards landlords is […]

More than a third of tenants (37%) didn’t know what a guarantor was before being asked to provide one as the Renters’ Rights Act triggers guarantor requests. According to Housing Hand’s Understanding Renters in 2026 report, 31% of renters only learned they needed a guarantor after finding a property they wanted. The news comes as, […]

Poorly maintained rental properties could wipe nearly £60,000 off the value of a landlord’s investment in London, new data reveals. Research by Rushbrook found landlords across England could lose up to £30,172 from the value of the average buy-to-let property if it is not properly maintained. Rushbrook analysed landlord-specific property values across each region of […]

I have come across something odd with York City Council and their Council Tax on Student Properties at a change of tenancy. In York, you will be charged one night of Council Tax for a tenancy that ends on the 30th June and the new students move in on the 1st July, I am told, […]

A group of MPs has warned that residents living in housing association properties are being “failed” and is calling on the government to introduce further legislation. In a letter to Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, the MPs claim that while recent legislation has strengthened accountability for private landlords and local authorities, housing associations have “fallen outside […]

Rental stock has surged across the UK, but some regional gaps persist, according to new data. Tenancy platform Propoly reveals England’s rental listings have climbed by an average of 7.4% in the past year, led by an 86.6% increase in Tyne and Wear. However, a number of places such as Norfolk and East Sussex have […]