The Intermediary – July 2025 - Flipbook - Page 44
BUY-TO-LET
Opinion
Demonising
landlords won’t fix
the housing crisis
T
o be a UK landlord,
you must be resilient
and incredibly thickskinned. This has
arguably become even
more true in the past
12 months, as the Renters’ Rights Bill
has been reborn under the new Labour
Government and has quite rapidly
pushed its way through the House of
Commons, and now into the Lords.
However, the challenges for
landlords are not just legislative,
but narrative. Perhaps fuelled by
this anti-landlord legislation, the
constant bashing of landlords in the
mainstream media and across social
media has risen to another level.
In fact, when asked during our
recent survey, only 9% of landlords
said the media portrayal of the buy-tolet (BTL) market is fair or accurate.
Demonised
The biggest theme among landlords
was that they felt demonised.
In truth, it’s an issue not unique to
landlords in the UK. During his time
as Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar quite
publicly denounced the demonisation
of landlords – and small landlords
in particular – underlining the need
for landlords to meet the demand
for rentals. Last year, we also saw that
viral clip of a landlord on Australia’s
version of ‘Question Time’, sharing
her frustrations of feeling demonised
as a landlord and guilty for even
owning properties.
This perhaps stems from another
key point raised by respondents,
which is the view that by being a
landlord, you are instantly ‘quids
in’ – making lots of profit as high
rents come rolling in. It has certainly
been lost in general discourse that
landlords have been facing their own
cost pressures as rising interest rates,
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The Intermediary | July 2025
higher operating costs and increased
regulation all take their toll.
As one respondent put it:
“Landlords are all painted as rogue,
greedy parasites. The fact of increased
interest rates, regulation, etc, is
never addressed.” Another spoke of the
view that landlords are rolling in cash,
making huge amounts of profit, or
are just rogue.
Tarred by the same brush
Branding all landlords as ‘rogue’
does a massive disservice to the
overwhelming majority who
genuinely care about their properties
and the people who rent them.
Respondents were under no
illusions that there are bad apples in
the sector, but categorically disagreed
with the generalisation. This is
especially true for smaller landlords
who have invested their savings or
inheritance in their properties, in
the hope of providing a pension.
Landlords also agreed that reform
is needed, but the worry is that the
Renters’ Rights Bill goes too far in the
wrong direction.
The consensus among decent
landlords is that reform must be
balanced so it protects both the
tenant and the property owner, who
takes on all the risk and makes all
the investment to make the rental
available in the first place.
One respondent said: “There are
poor landlords out there and reforms
are needed to address this, but there
are also lots of good landlords that
will find it harder and will exit the
market. These people are not being
listened to, or are portrayed as fat cat
money grabbers.”
Unintended consequences
It is those smaller landlords who
probably find the demonisation most
ROB STANTON
is sales and distribution
director at Landbay
unfair – the ones that play a vital role
in propping up a private rental market
that is already underserved and in
high demand.
With the addition of restrictive
legislation and increased red tape, we
give this vital cohort of landlords even
greater reason to stop expanding, or
worse, dispose of properties entirely.
It will serve as a massive wake-up call
to landlord bashers when a reduction
in landlords doesn’t reverse a housing
crisis, and a drop in rental properties
only serves to increase rents.
Rental properties play a critical role
in the UK’s housing mix – particularly
for transient workers, students,
prospective buyers and importantly,
never-buyers. We must protect decent,
good-quality landlords at all costs.
As a sector, we must do more to
counteract this anti-landlord rhetoric
and throw our support behind these
landlords. As a lender, our role is
to ensure that landlords and the
brokers supporting them have access
to diverse, innovative products at
competitive rates – enabling them to
capitalise on investment opportunities
and refinance successfully.
The Government undoubtedly
has a role to play, too. While it has
started to address historical failings in
planning reform, housing supply and
social housing expansion, it also has a
key role to play in helping to flip this
narrative and acknowledge the role
landlords play.
Given how it is pushing ahead with
the Renters’ Rights Bill and all the
conversations around this, it probably
reflects the confidence many have in
actually seeing this through. ●
