10th
Nov 2021
Many landlords have had to ‘plunder’ their personal savings when helping their tenants survive Covid-19 financial problems, according to a new study.
The research was undertaken by BVA/BDRC for a PRS organisation which found that 61 per cent of landlords who had during Q2 helped by or offered one of their tenants a rent free period, to be paid back in the future, was funded from the landlords own personal savings.
The latest YouGov data shows that 61 per cent of landlords only own one property whilst 34 per cent are retired and dependant partly or solely on rental income as their ‘pension’. The industry organisation states that those landlords dipping into their savings to fund tenant’s financial problems is unsustainable.
Government figures suggest that during April and May this year 7 per cent of tenants in England, around 800,000 were in rental arrears, twice the number of tenants behind in their rent in 2019/20 prior to lockdown restrictions being imposed.
A spokesperson for the organisation, said: “These figures show the extent to which landlords have worked to sustain tenancies as a result of the pandemic, many at the expense of their retirement savings. But this cannot continue indefinitely.
“After months of calling on the government to help tenants who through no fault of theirs got behind with their rent, we have welcomed the funding now made available to help those affected to pay off Covid rent debts.
“It is now vital that councils ensure tenants who need it can access the funding swiftly. Without this, landlords will be left between a rock and a hard place either expected to sustain rent arrears they cannot afford or to repossess their properties, neither of which we want to see.”
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