[Sorry Correction!] #53 - Limited time resource + Bank of England's take on the rental market

Hans Chan -

What I’m Watching

I haven't been as excited by a watch so much for a long time as an enthusiast. In an industry that’s highly driven by marketing and hype, it's a watch that innovates in a largely stagnant industry and deservedly achieved watch of the year in 2022. Teddy talks about how the C1 is managing to shake things up.

Resource of the week

As promised in my recent BTL screening process video, here is the Notion property screener that I use. Make sure you duplicate your own copy! I only plan to keep it available for free on my site for a week.

Quote

Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better.

Jim Rohn

  • The whole TikTok fiasco is heating up. Congress has launched a bipartisan effort to attack TikTok citing security concerns.
    It’s an interesting scenario, I think it’s unlikely there will be a straight-up ban, because the economic implications would be immense with 150 active Americans using the app. However, China has outright stated they are against a forced sale.
  • The government’s ‘How to Rent Guide’ has been updated. Not the most interesting read but it’s a document that all landlords must provide to tenants by law at the start of a tenancy. If not, you cannot legally repossess the property under Section 21.
  • Bank of England has put out their summary of business conditions under which they confirm “as smaller buy-to-let landlords continued to exit the market, while demand for rental properties continued to rise, leading to double-digit rent inflation”. We are no doubt in a rental crisis in some parts of the country. Concerningly, there doesn’t appear to be a solution on the horizon.

Thoughts

So I was at a property event this week, and the consensus is that conditions are pretty tough, especially for smaller landlords. This ties in with the Bank of England’s observation, and what people in the industry are already seeing, that there is a consistent general decline in the number of landlords leading to a supply imbalance in rental properties. Anecdotally, I'm having estate agents call me like crazy, desperate for rental stock, like never before.

This survey shows the picture, which we are already seeing happening. There are a number of landlords switching to short-term lets, which only accounts for a minority. It also has the effect of further taking long-term lets out of the market. A larger proportion has decided to call it a day, to exit the market further fuelling the imbalance. Looking at the upcoming legislation, I don’t see any effective solution to this problem. Will be interesting to see what the government’s response is once it gets to breaking point.

Other Stuff

  • Filming is underway for the handwriting class. Unfortunately, in usual fashion, it’s running behind schedule but should be released at some point in April!
  • My TikTok video where I show the process of using the screener from the resource section.

Hans