What’s your view on landlords? Love them or hate them? Often, some tenants and parts of the media portray landlords to be irresponsible and rapacious with a money-making attitude. In actual fact, the rapport between both landlord and tenant is often far more positive.
A new study released by the English Housing Survey displays that in reality, a large proportion of tenants are far happier than what many articles may suggest. To put a figure on the statement, 84% are satisfied with the property in which they live in.
Additionally, 72% of tenants within the private sector are satisfied with the result of repairs and maintenances.
David Smith, policy director of the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) said: “While we should never be complacent, these results confound the myths that some have peddled about the private rented sector. It shows once again that the vast majority of private sector landlords do a good job and look after their properties and tenants properly.”
“The Government should recognise this and ensure policy supports the vast majority of landlords who are individuals that continue providing the good quality homes to rent we need while improving enforcement to root out the criminals who have no place in the market.”
The English Housing Survey also reported that 20% of households in England are accounted for by the private rental sector and that the proportion of private rented sector households is on the rise.
Since 1996-1997, the proportion has doubled from 2.1 million to 4.7million households in 2016-2017.
The report also revealed that 68% of tenants were either very or fairly satisfied with their current tenure and that the main three types of household in the private rented sector included one person households (27%), couples with dependent children (24%) and couples with no children (21%). Other examples of households types included lone parents with dependent children.
The Government are currently reviewing the position of longer tenancies which includes tax incentives for landlords who offer longer terms which are can benefit security for older tenants. We believe flexibility is essential to providing stability to families and older renters who are looking for longer term tenancies, the current system of shorter tenancies don’t provide older tenants with security, which can open up further void periods between tenancies, although it is crucial to note that shorter tenancies serve their purpose for those not looking to be tied to a property for the long-term.