"Strong, clear lines of communication can prove hugely beneficial and often separate good landlords from those who are not so good"
Landlords have had to endure a somewhat negative perception over the years. As a landlord who takes great pride in making sure my tenants are thoroughly well looked after, this has always smarted.
As in any area of life, there will always be a few bad apples but, by and large, this is a community who are keen to demonstrate its ongoing support for tenants. A feature which was especially apparent over the course of the pandemic and increasingly so during a period when a host of additional financial burdens continue to impact household finances across the UK.
These challenging times have actually helped to bring many tenants and landlords closer together, especially when it comes to cementing how much they need each other and the value that both parties can offer. This was evident in an interesting study undertaken by USwitch which polled both tenants and landlords to discover their attitudes towards this relationship, and whether landlords remain open to supporting their tenants through the ongoing cost of living crisis.
The research found that young landlords were most likely to support their tenants through the cost of living crisis, with 57% of 18–24 year-olds answering ‘yes’ when asked if they would reduce or freeze rent or make energy-efficient upgrades around the home. The percentage of landlords answering a definitive ‘yes’ steadily decreased with age with 40% of property owners aged 55 and above answering ‘yes’.
39% of all landlords answered that they would ‘possibly’ support their tenants during the cost of living crisis, highlighting the conditional nature of the question, in that support is dependent on the relationship they feel they have with their tenants.
As suggested in the final outcome, the reaction of landlords to shifting tenant needs will inevitably vary as they too are facing increasing costs and these are especially marked for those landlords who have come to the end of their fixed-rate mortgages in recent times and have had to face what remains a quite severe rate shock. This factor which was outlined in additional data from Octane Capital which showed that the cost of maintaining a monthly buy-to-let mortgage interest payment has climbed by 75.7% in the last year, with those making a full mortgage repayment each month seeing an increase of 31.6%.
From the outside in, it can be easy to view BTL properties as money-making machines and many of the aforementioned negative preconceptions are laced with the assumption that landlords are making huge profit margins due to the ever-rising rents being charged. However, this is not always the case.
Landlords are having to carefully balance costs, yields and profits whilst also realising the impact on a variety of tenant types stemming from the current economic climate. This is where strong, clear lines of communication can prove hugely beneficial and often separate good landlords from those who are not so good.
After all, the faster that any issues can be resolved, the better for both parties. Small problems can often turn into larger ones if they go unaddressed for any period of time and there is nothing a landlord appreciates more than longer-term hassle-free tenants who they can rely on and who respect their properties.
Let’s hope that these younger landlords can maintain these sentiments and standards going forward and continue to raise the reputation of this community over the short, medium and longer term.
