20th
Jun 2023
A leading mortgage lender is claiming that 8 out of 10 BTL landlords feel severely let down and ostracised by the unfair attitude towards them taken by the mainstream media which is by no means accurate, according to the platforms quarterly survey.
Demand for private rental properties is high and landlords told the lender they feel ‘demonised’ as there is no mention of their highly important role they play in the UK’s housing crisis and they remain ‘not recognised’ for this by the media.
They are sick to their back teeth of the press tarnishing and blaming ‘greedy’ landlords for the low supply of housing stock across the UK, rather than criticising successive governments’ failures over decades in not building enough properties.
The landlords taking part in the survey were asked whether they agreed with the statement that the way media portrayed them is fair and accurate, 33 per cent strongly disagreed and virtually half (48 per cent) disagreed with the statement.
One landlord said: “The PRS provides much needed homes that are not being built by councils.
“I am a good landlord but I am fed up with being portrayed as someone who has plenty of money and is profiteering off tenants. What would happen if most landlords sold their properties?”
Another adds: “It would be good if the media was more balanced and also portrayed the issues for landlords with problem tenants.”
Paul Brett of the BTL lender, says: “There’s no question landlords have needed to be thick-skinned with successive anti-landlord governments and plenty of anti-landlord rhetoric in the national news.
“It’s unfortunate that bad news leads when there are so many positive examples of good landlords working in partnership with tenants to provide quality housing.
“With such a reliance on rented accommodation as part of the wider housing mix in the UK, we need quality landlords more than ever. We also need new entrants too as demand continues to outstrip supply.”
The RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors) latest survey found that PRS housing demand outstrips supply and the availability of properties will continue to fall in light of continual interest rate rises and the undoubted abolition of Section 21, causing landlords to leave the sector.
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