u/Landlordlabuk

A letting agent has been fined £8,600 for issuing a six-month fixed-term tenancy agreement in breach of the Renters’ Rights Act.

The Chesterfield agent was handed two fines by the district council for offences committed under the Act, which came to light after its private housing team received a complaint from tenants about housing standards at a rented property shortly after they moved in.

During its investigation, the council discovered that the agent had issued a six-month fixed-term tenancy agreement, despite fixed-term assured tenancies being prevented under the Act.

This is a reminder to all landlords that getting your paperwork right is no longer optional. There will be fines for using the wrong agreements and contravention of the Renters Rights Act. There is no business as usual - being a landlord has changed significantly and agents and landlords that don't adapt will pay a heavy price.

Worth a read to better understand the impact of the swap rates on landlords and their business model.

[Preview]

There is a number in the Knight Frank weekly indicators that almost no landlord reads, and it governs more of your portfolio than anything the Chancellor will say on 28 October.

The UK five year interest rate swap closed at 4.71% this week. A month ago it was 4.50%. In January 2020 it was 0.88%.

That is the wholesale price banks pay to lend at a fixed rate for five years. Every five year fixed buy to let product in the market is built on top of it. Aldermore’s zero fee five year fix currently sits at 6.09%, which is about 1.4 points of lender margin over that swap. The margin is not the story. The 383 basis points that appeared underneath it are.

Most commentary treats this as a cost problem: interest went up, cash flow went down, everyone knows. That framing misses the more serious effect. Rates do not just take money off your P&L. They set a hard ceiling on how much you are permitted to borrow against a given rent. And that ceiling has fallen much further than most portfolios have noticed.

[Read the full article on the link]

John Phillips is quoted in an article for Mortgage Advisors (behind paywall):

"Right now, there are plenty of reasons for uncertainty and hesitation. Inflation has moved higher and speculation around future interest rate movements only intensifies. And while GDP has proved to be pretty resilient in recent months, the stop-start conflict in the Middle East is adding volatility to an already unpredictable economic backdrop.

Yet look beyond all the negative headlines and narratives, and there are some reasons to be cheerful. 

We are seeing lenders compete for business. Despite the wider uncertainty causing interest rate increases, lenders are remaining in the market and tweaking their criteria. That is a clear sign for brokers and their customers.

The simple truth is that lenders need to lend. They don’t make money by sitting on the sidelines. They make money by putting it to work, growing their mortgage books and completing business. That is especially true as big-name institutions continue to leave the high street and rely on the adviser community to secure new business.

All too often, we talk down the market and look at it through the lens of what might happen next. Will inflation fall? Will swap rates destabilise? Will the base rate go up? What will happen in the next Budget? What about the geopolitical picture?

While all these questions do matter, none of them change the fact that there is still money in the market today. The real question is: do customers know this? 

If consumers hear enough about inflation, interest rates and economic uncertainty, it’s understandable that they might sit on their hands or think that lenders are pulling back. There will undoubtedly be those who think the mortgage market isn’t for them, despite never really investigating if that is truly the case.

I’m not saying we have to pretend everything is super positive - we know that’s not the reality. I do think we should flip the narrative, though - away from uncertainty and towards opportunity and competition."

What do people think it terms of the fundamentals as the market settles down into it's new norm? I personally think that for Landlords we are starting to see that rents are increasing and that will absorb most if not all of the additional cost of compliance and taxation. But there is so much negativity in the market that it will take a few years to recover, even if returns come back quicker. So the early risk takers in this market will be the ones to make good returns - but only if they are on top of the new model of professional landlording.

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I think what the numbers are showing here is inevitable. Property never changes over night but in the long term it acts like a logical market. Restrict supply while demand increases? Prices will rise subject to affordability constraints. Increase fixed costs (licensing, compliance, PRS Database) and the lower end is proportionally affected more. Landlords pass those costs on, and if the market can’t absorb it they leave. So rents rise faster at the bottom end. I fully expect the trend to continue and worsen. The only thing delaying it is the overall economy going into reverse. That is obviously bad for all businesses, not just landlords.

Link to Richard Donnel's (Zoopla) LinkedIn post that these graphs come from with his comments here 👉🏽 Richard Donnel LinkedIn Post

It is worth a read if you are a landlord or property investor.

Here's some additional guidance for landlords that you can refer to. It includes the timelines, the costs and the penalties. Too many landlords are just focussing on the cost (£65 a year) and the admin. But the register is more than just a tick box - it is a window into your compliance gaps.

The UK Government has confirmed that its new ‘Register your rental property’ service will begin rolling out across England from December 2026 and in London specifically from July 2027. Landlords of assured and regulated tenancies will be required to register themselves and each occupied rental property.

The rollout is regional. Landlords in London must register by 14 October 2027, with other English regions following through to November 2027. Registration will cost £65 per property each year.

The UK Government has confirmed that its new ‘Register your rental property’ service will begin rolling out across England from 15 December 2026. Landlords of assured and regulated tenancies will be required to register themselves and each occupied rental property.

The rollout is regional. Landlords in the West Midlands must register by 14 March 2027, with other English regions following through to November 2027. Registration will cost £65 per property each year. 

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This register will make it more difficult and more expensive for those you are operating on short term lets. This has been coming for a while and is not something I can see any other party reversing so I would plan on this staying.

If you are considering letting your property as short term I would make sure that you future proof your business model. If you are in London the 90 day rule makes it almost impossible. I do wonder if that rule will spread to other cities over time.

It should also be a warning to those who are using rent to rent operators. As we have seen with Renters Rights they are not going to go easy on fines and punishment. So it won't take a lot to erase any profits.

It seems that politicians are indeed some of the stupidest fucking people on the planet. We are back again discussing rent controls. I think they want us to get bored of calling them morons. But that is why it is important to call them out even more. And tell your friends. The idea is really fucking stupid and you are flogging a dead horse. Of course this is Reddit so expect the communists to jump in with some uninformed sob story. The difference between adults and children is we live in reality. Not because we think it's a fairy tale but because that is the only basis on which grown ups make decisions. Here's a link to the latest IFS article on this. For anyone who needs to know why it is a dumb idea. You would think an elected politician might have researched just a little before signing a letter asking for it. But then again we are the country that voted for Brexit - when most people had no idea what it was.

We have just engaged a client who applied for his licence last year when the latest Lambeth Selective Licence scheme was launched. Initially he had not found any specific requirements that he needed to be aware of while overseas. However, as he went through the application process he was asked for a local agent. He gave a friend. On review the council pushed back on this and asked if the friend was qualified and aware that they were potentially liable for not meeting the conditions of the licence. The friend (in the words of our client) said "f" that! The council did threaten to cancel the application at that point but he asked for 14 days to resolve which they were reasonable in accepting.

That was when he came to us. We've completed our compliance review inside three days and are now acting as his local agent and making sure he remains compliant with the licence. Truth is that he didn't actually have any management in place in real terms and we did find gaps we've fixed with him. So we're happy we've been able to show him our value even if initially he didn't really want to sign up as felt he had to!

Has anyone else been surprised by these requirements for overseas landlords? We certainly did not see a lot of communication around the need for a local agent on most new schemes but it does seem to be a regular feature now, especially in the London Boroughs. So if you are based overseas or move overseas this is something you definitely need to check as it could invalidate your licence.

Lettings and estate agent Benham and Reeves found that having more favourable landlord taxation would be by far the biggest incentive to buy more rental properties (36%) followed by lower Stamp Duty (13%), and a faster or easier possession process (12%).

That would surprise many who would have thought the increased regulatory burden would have put off more people. However, the more professional landlords are starting to adapt to this and price it in to their rents. And with the help of specialists like Landlord Lab many self managing landlords are now getting the professional help they need.

So that is good news for the government and tenants. All they need to do to increase supply and therefore reduce upward pressure on rents is reverse the punitive taxes on landlords of the last decade.

OpenRent's founders have sold a majority stake in their firm to Luxembourg-based CVC, although the money involved has not been disclosed.

By growth, the joint statement says, they mean new tools for landlords and tenants to reduce the admin, complexity and cost of renting in Britain.

It is unclear at the moment what this means for the many landlords that use Open Rent. Could it mean fee increases are on their way or does the "new tools" offer additional support for additional fees?

HMRC said more than 864,000 sole traders and landlords were required to enter Making Tax Digital this year. Yet an announcement slipped out last week admits that only around 436,000 have filed their quarterly update.

If your gross income (the rent before any deductions) is over £50k a year then your first submission was due on 7th August. If you missed it then don't panic. But if you don't know what is required then get help. www.landlordaccounts.co.uk are helping new clients with free submissions this year with their self-assessment. There are also options to self file but we know that not all landlords have the time or knowledge to do this every 3 months. So outsourcing it makes sense for professionals in the same way we help landlords who outsource their compliance management.

That is according to the latest research from Pegasus Insight that found 63% of landlords described tenant demand in the areas where they let property as either ‘very strong’ or ‘quite strong’ in Q2 2026, up from 58% in Q1. That was the first increase since the unusual (by historic standards) highs reached in 2024.

Pegasus Insight said the increase in tenant demand comes as the supply of homes in the private rented sector remains under pressure. It's research continues to show that more landlords are decreasing the size of their portfolios as timing allows. Mark Long was quoted "“The concern is that demand is beginning to strengthen again at a time when landlord appetite for investment remains weak, with far more landlords still looking to sell property than buy."

I always take these surveys with a pinch of salt on an individual basis but it does reflect an overall pattern that we are seeing in the market. We all know what happens when supply is constrained but demand starts to grow.

That is the latest report from Rightmove. It definitely remains a buyers market in London and that means there are good opportunities. Hamptons are among the agents that are seeing landlords with cash in particular getting relative bargains.

We are helping some new landlords find their feet which is refreshing. More people in the 30's are approaching us to help them through the structuring (SPV or personal), financing and running it for them in a compliant way. Many of them are full time employed and see property as a long term investment alongside their pensions and ISAs. And now prices are at a level where the numbers are making complete sense. Maybe this is the answer to where new supply is coming from?

So according to Rightmove's data, what is happening in the housing market? 🏠

👉 Average asking prices of newly listed homes for sale have fallen by 2.0% in August to £364,999, the largest August price drop since 2018.

👉The number of homes for sale is at a 12-year high for this time of year, giving buyers more choice and increasing competition between sellers.

👉 Given continued geopolitical uncertainty and mortgage rate volatility, Rightmove have revised our 2026 asking price forecast to a range of 0% to -2% for the year as a whole.

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