For a long time, a narrative has been built pitting landlords and tenants against each other, but with Michael Gove’s new renters reform bill, the only adversary is government incompetence.
Here at Rocket, we believe the rental property market can be made very simple: A higher supply of rental properties provided by landlords leads to lower rents.
But, when the government make profitability extremely difficult for landlords then they are forced to sell and tenants are left with a small market of very expensive rental properties.
The new renters reform bill did not address this issue in the slightest
Instead, Gove has tinkered with already existing policy to very little effect and failed to reverse previous tax changes that left some landlords paying more than 100% tax on the income from their rental properties, making them financially unviable.
In fairness, there are some aspects of the bill we do support here at Rocket, such as the fact that all landlords, not just agents, will have to sign up to a property ombudsman and they will have to comply with various regulations, as well as the “more comprehensive grounds for possession”.
This will help provide more protection for tenants, which is something we believe is of the utmost importance here at Rocket, but once again it does not address the real problem.
This may all sound doom and gloom, but the real takeaway is that with the government doing everything they can to make life difficult for landlords, it is important now more than ever to make sure you have the help of a competent agent.
And that is where Rocket comes in, as we can take landlords all the way through the process from finding the right property, buying it at a good price, making it lettable and then putting it on the market at the correct rent, helping landlords come to the realisation that their properties do hold value and they can be profitable.
