CEO of Octane Capital, Jonathan Samuels, believes that despite the potential challenges posed by the impending Renters’ Rights Bill, the nation’s landlords continue to see the value in Buy-to-Let investment, with just one in five expected to reduce the size of their investment portfolio over the coming year.
The survey of landlords across England, commissioned by Octane Capital, found that the vast majority made little change to their rental property portfolios over the last year.
90% of those surveyed said that they had kept their portfolio size unchanged, with just 7% deciding to reduce its size, suggesting that the narrative around an exodus of landlords from the private rental sector has been grossly exaggerated.
However, looking at the year ahead, 21% stated that they intend to reduce the size of their portfolio, with 75% deciding to keep it unchanged, whilst 4% again intend to increase it.
For those who do plan to reduce their portfolio size this year, the proposed changes via the incoming Renters Rights Bill ranked as the number one reason for doing so.
The appointment of the Labour government ranked second, with the third biggest factor being that they were approaching retirement.
When asked which aspects of the Renters’ Rights Bill they feel will pose the biggest challenges for landlords, the abolition of Section 21 ‘no fault evictions’ ranked top of the table.
Prohibiting landlords from not renting to those on benefits or with children was the second biggest challenge, along with the abolition of short hold tenancies.
Jonathan Samuels, Octane Capital CEO, commented:
“It’s fair to say that the landlord exodus that has been so widely talked about in recent years has been largely over exaggerated and the vast majority of buy-to-let investors still view the private rental market as a worthwhile endeavour.
However, there’s no doubt that the government’s consistent campaign to deter landlords from the sector by way of legislative changes has had an impact and, in a market that is already drastically undersupplied, we simply can’t afford to drive away investors.
Unfortunately, it looks as though more could choose to exit during 2025 and the key reason for this decision is the Renters’ Rights Bill. Whilst any improvements to tenant welfare are, of course, positive, the concern is that landlords have been largely ignored with respect to the intended changes.
In doing so, the government is likely to exacerbate the current rental crisis as without the vital supply of rental properties reaching the market, tenants will be worse off than they may be now.”
