The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that a campaign for wide-ranging rent control is to be key to his 2020 re-election bid. He asked the government to give the London mayoralty the power to combat soaring rents in the capital. To this news, Alexandra Morris, Managing Director of
A brand new subscription model for the incoming tenant fee ban has been launched by online letting agency MakeUrMove. With just £12 per month on the ‘Good Landlord’ subscription, landlords will have access to a wide range of services, including Rightmove and Zoopla advertising, tenant referencing, rent collection, legal eviction services,
BDC 319 : Aug 2024
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has announced that a campaign for wide-ranging rent control is to be key to his 2020 re-election bid. He asked the government to give the London mayoralty the power to combat soaring rents in the capital. To this news, Alexandra Morris, Managing Director of online letting agent, MakeUrMove, said the following: “The main problem for tenants is a lack of supply in the housing market, meaning it does not meet demand, particularly when it comes to social housing. Rent controls do not deal with this problem, they merely seek to address a symptom of the problem. “Most good landlords don’t regularly increase rents, because they want to provide a service their tenants can afford. This means most landlords experience a real terms reduction in their rental income year on year. “Rent controls would represent another burden for landlords who are already facing interest rate rises, tax relief changes and increasing regulation. This could become a further barrier to landlords covering their costs or making a small profit. “As smaller landlords often have one eye on getting out of the market, rent controls could prove to be the final straw. This would further reduce capacity in the private rental sector. “In addition, there will also be some landlords who wouldn’t have increased rents but who now feel they have permission to put rents up in line with the rent control measures. “All of these factors will lead to more rapidly increasing average rents because the fundamental issue – that we aren’t building anywhere near enough homes in the UK – has yet to be adequately addressed.”
A brand new subscription model for the incoming tenant fee ban has been launched by online letting agency MakeUrMove. With just £12 per month on the ‘Good Landlord’ subscription, landlords will have access to a wide range of services, including Rightmove and Zoopla advertising, tenant referencing, rent collection, legal eviction services, property licence checking, as well as documents and renewals. “The tenant fee bill is going to affect the whole property industry. The most innovative agents will look to technology to reduce costs. We’re at the forefront of this as the first agent to come out and support the tenant fee ban. As a tech platform, we’re constantly developing and will be adding new features as standard to our package. We want to be a landlord platform rather than a letting platform,” said Alexandra Morris, Managing Director at MakeUrMove. Moreover, the subscription offers optional bolt ons, such as guaranteed rent for up to six months in the case of a tenant failing to pay and annual gas safety certificates, for a small additional cost. MakeUrMove conducted a research that showed 25% of landlords and a staggering 85% of tenants didn’t understand the upcoming ban. “We’re confident that our new subscription model will do this, while providing peace of mind and security for landlords, knowing that they will pay a fixed cost of £12 per month with no prices increases over the term of their subscription, as well as benefiting from referencing, legal eviction cover and renewals included as standard. This whole focus behind these packages is to try and mitigate costs for landlords when it comes to having an empty property, as well as supporting them and reducing the risk of non payment of rent,” explained further Alexandra. The £12 per month subscription model will be offered alongside a basic package, which will include advertising and one downloadable tenancy agreement. There will also be a standard package offered at a one-off cost of £96, which will also include tenancy documents and deposit lodging, rent collection for 12 months and advertising with the major property portals.
