BREAKING NEWS – top 5 stories 27/07/2021

Daily bite-sized proptech and real estate news in partnership with Proptech-X. Today, Stanton looks at Tory Landlords, SRA, Propertymark and more.

1. Four in ten homes sold for more than the asking price in June
2. A quarter of Conservative MPs are private landlords
3. MP suggests sharing the cost of rent arrears in PRS
4. SRA is investigating over 130 allegations of sexual misconduct
5. 12% of UK rentals held by tenants who never viewed in person

Four in ten homes sold for more than the asking price in June

According to the latest analysis from Propertymark, 40% of properties sold in June did so at a higher than their listing price. This was 7% higher than the previous month, a telling sign that the market is still a seller’s market.

With the SDLT holiday finishing at the end of June and only a partial reduction in stamp duty on properties up to £250,000, it remains to be seen if the frenetic activity in the housing market will sustain itself.

A quarter of Conservative MPs are private landlords

It was reported in April that PM Boris Johnson rents out his Grade II-listed cottage in Oxfordshire (for £4,250 per month) while he is in situ at Number 10. Along with this, he also rents his part-owned houses in London and Somerset.

However, there is often a veil of secrecy surrounding some of the lesser-known Members of Parliament.

It has now been revealed that 90 currently serving Conservative party MPs are private landlords. There are an additional 25 MPs from other political parties in the House who are landlords, amounting to 18% of MPs across all parties who have declared that they are earning money from rent.

Seeing as MPs are around six times more likely to be landlords according to this data, Parliament is undoubtedly skewed towards the possible interests of landlords.

18% of serving MPs have revealed that they are earning money from private rentals.

MP suggests sharing the cost of rent arrears in PRS

With hundreds of thousands owed to landlords in the private rented sector, Nigel Mills, Conservative MP for Amber Valley in Derbyshire, has suggested that the shortfalls should be eaten by the tenant, landlord and the government.

Mills said: “Tenants will need to pay some of their debt, but in return a landlord could offer a new one-year lease so the tenancy can be sustained and the arrears could be cleared over a decent period, in return for a taxpayer contribution. Those proportions could be moved up or down but that seems to be a realistic model.”

Full disclosure: Not unlike a number of his right honourable friends in the House, Mr Mills himself rents out his residential property in Nottingham, according to TheyWorkForYou.com’s register of interest.

SRA is investigating over 130 allegations of sexual misconduct

The Solicitors Regulation Authority, which is the defacto internal police force that investigates its own membership, has just revealed that over 130 sexual misconduct investigations are taking place.

The investigations are looking at matters relating to members who may or may not be guilty of sexual misconduct.

This comes off the back of the revelation that forty law firms paid over £10 million in compensation in 2020 due to the misconduct of certain parties within the legal profession.

12% of UK rentals held by tenants who never viewed in person

Just as video conferencing has become the norm, so too has the letting of properties to tenants who have not even set foot in the property they wish to rent.

The emergence of technologies like virtual viewings, mixed with lockdown after lockdown caused by the pandemic, meant that last year 12% of renters moved into their new rented accommodation without an in-person viewing.

If you have a view – please let us all know by emailing me at [email protected] – Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward.