Breaking Property News – 01/08/24
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
Adam Pigott CEO of tlyfe – the Oracle of the lettings industry
Everyone is familiar with Adam Pigott‘s tlyfe app, developed by OpenBrix tram, which streamlines and enhances the rental process for both tenants and letting agents. But not so many people know that like many founders Adam is the oracle when it comes to his specialist subject – lettings. Because in a former life not only did he run lettings businesses, scaling up tlyfe means he is still totally immersed in the industry.
So when I caught up with him I started by asking Adam his thoughts on two big topics:
Labour Government’s Impact on the Rental Industry
Adam’s view was that the government has outlined several significant changes to the rental industry in the UK, aiming to enhance tenant rights and address various issues within the private rental sector. But that each new inniative might have unintended consequences. He listed out some key areas, abolishing Section 21 Evictions. Labour plans to abolish Section 21 “no-fault” evictions, providing greater security for renters and ensuring they are not unfairly displaced.
He explained that Labour was looking at regulating rent Increases, empowering tenants to challenge unreasonable rent increases, perhaps involving changes to the First-tier Tribunal’s handling of rent disputes. Labour wants to stop rent bidding wars, and prohibiting landlords from inviting or encouraging competitive bidding to stop rental price inflation.
Adam went on to say that Labour may extending Awaab’s Law to the PRS, to prevent health hazards like mould in private rental properties. Separately bolstering anti-discrimination laws to stop income or family status bias.
When I asked about the Chancellor’s dream of 1.8M new homes, Adam felt that like all governments focusing on affordable and high-quality housing may be aspirational but how would it get executed. Adam felt like all new governments with a large majority labour wanted to help the PRS, and create a more balanced and fair rental market, but tenants and landlords both have an equal stake in it.
Current State of the UK Rental Market
I then asked Adam how big was the PRS as lots of pundits say that it is shrinking. He felt that there are approximately 4.6 million privately rented homes in the UK, accounting for over 17% of all properties and this was staying at the same level.
When asked about average rents per month, there was some real surprises at the regional variances, in England £1,285, Wales £727, Scotland £947 and NI £730 per month. With London at £2,055 a month. And on how long the typical tenant stays in a rental it was 4.3 years as of last year, an uptick from 3.7 years in 2021.
On the topic of the number of private landlords in the UK, Adam felt that typically a landlord still has just under two properties they let out. So 2.3 million private landlords, supplying 4.6 million rentals. Mixed in with some big players like Grainger PLC with over 9,000 rental properties across England and Wales, and now banks like Lloyds talking about building a 50,000 strong portfolio.
Having got the ‘Oracles’ take on these key points I then turned to Adam’s favourite topic, which he and his team breathe daily – tylfe.
tlyfe continues to wow both tenants and lettings agents
After asking Adam, how many tens of thousands of tenants had downloaded the tylfe app, he smiled and told me that increasingly lettings agents love it too, as it as it pre-qualifies tenants through comprehensive checks, including government-backed right-to-rent verifications, ID checks, and verified references. As he put it ‘Tenants are “rent-ready,” allowing them to secure rental properties more efficiently while saving letting agents time and resources.’
I then asked what the standout features of tlyfe included, and Mr Pigott was off,
‘Digital ID verification, it simplifies the process for tenants to prove their identity and right to rent, making it easier to secure a rental property. Credit Building, tracking rental payments to help tenants build their credit scores, which can be advantageous for future financial endeavours. Comprehensive screening, ensures tenants are fully vetted before they approach letting agents, reducing workload of agents.
Tenant services include, tenant insurance, loan solutions, and a marketplace for additional rental-related needs. And by partnering with the TDS, and other service providers the App’s functionalities and compliance with legal standards is outstanding. Tenants can download it from the App store, or as it was developed by OpenBrix and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), it is available exclusively to TDS customers free of charge.
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X
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