RLA: New government needs to relieve pressure on landlords

This follows the RICS Residential Market Survey predicting with tenant demand continuing to increase this will cause rents to rise.

RLA: New government needs to relieve pressure on landlords

The new government needs to relieve the pressure on landlords according to David Smith, policy director for the Residential Landlords Association (RLA).

The latest RICS Residential Market Survey for November shows a net balance of -29% of surveyors reporting a fall in landlord instructions.

This is twice the negative rating in November 2018.

With tenant demand continuing to increase, RICS predicts that this will lead to rent increases of around 2% over the next year and around 3% a year over the next five years.

Smith said: “If the decline in the supply of new homes to rent continues to fall whilst demand is still rising, this is going to lead to a crisis in some areas as tenants desperately search for somewhere to live.

“This is all the result of increased taxation and other measures over the last three years and the result has been highly predictable as we said it would be.

“The new government needs to urgently address the problem and make changes in the forthcoming budget to relieve the pressure on landlords and encourage new investment to meet the demand.”