Gary Barker, CEO, of Reapit, comments on ‘decreased supply and increased rental costs’
Following the news that the government is looking to end no-fault evictions, Gary Barker, the CEO of Reapit argues that this could lead to decreased supply and increased rental costs:
“Today’s government announcement to end no-fault evictions comes just six weeks before the tenant fees ban takes effect in England, and not long after tax relief on mortgage interest was capped for landlords. We already see that demand for quality rental property outstrips supply in many places around the UK. The unintended consequence of this announcement may be that landlords sell up or remove their properties from the rental market.
With reduced supply, rental prices will undoubtedly increase. We’ve already seen the first signs of this on our platform, in 2018 we saw 7% fewer new instructions being received by letting agents compared with 2017. Of course, it’s important to give families more security as private renters, but we need to ensure that the change in law also gives equal incentives to the landlords to ensure stability in the market.”