We're Raising Rents in the next year, admits vast majority of landlords

Yep ….. 👍🏻 This is me 😂💰😂

The massive increase in costs means we have no choice.
For many years while interest rates were low and the full effect of Section 24 hadn't filtered through a lot of us didn't increase rent at all for good tenants. The theory was it was better to keep a good tenant than have a void and risk getting a not so good tenant. I don't actually remember receiving any thanks for that even though some of mine didn't have a rent increase for over 5 years.

Huge increases in utility costs forced me to increase HMO rents as soon as I could when all the small utility companies went bust. Costs that should have been £8000 if the utility contracts had been honoured suddenly became over £30000. I sent an email to all HMO tenants explaining the situation and letting them know some would receive rent increase notices. Those increases were between £25 and £75 per person per month depending on how many years they had lived in the houses. One household was concerned the increase wasn't enough and offered to have a whip round, which I thought was very sweet.

In April 2023 I increased rents for tenants with UC top ups by the same percentage as the Local Authority was increasing Social rents. Those houses are still way below market rent but it did push them above LHA. In April 2024 they went to the new LHA level so the tenants currently don't have to make up a shortfall. Going forward I'll probably match the Local Authority annual percentage increase as that should make it easier for those tenants to get DHPs if LHA is frozen again.

Increased mortgage rates last year lead to more rent increases. Nowhere near enough to cover the extra mortgage payments and Section 24 tax yet so future increases are already baked in. We also need to prepare for any upcoming mortgage product switches.

There's also the increase in insurance costs, tradespeople and materials.
It's going to be years before we return to an acceptable level of profit for the risk we take.

I never used to increase rents, but now that Rent Smart Wales has forced all Welsh landlords to replace their original tenancy agreements with new Rent Smart Wales contracts , which changed all the terms and conditions of our original legal agreements. I began increasing rents by the maximum possible and will continue to do so each year until they match my increased costs or the tenants leave and I can sell.

Sad to say that this is me too :(

I normally only increase rents when tenants move out, but the majority of my tenants have been there since 2018 and 1 since 2013 and have never had a rent increase.

Before you say it. I know, its my fault for not increasing a small amount each year so that they can keep up with market rents. I've a few long term tenants that are struggling to pay the current rent, so my options are either try to get rid of them before S21 is abolished or increase the rent.

I don't have any mortgages to pay but the cost of maintenance has gone sky high and the thought of what Labor is going to do to us is just not worth thinking about.

For the first time ever, some rents have already been increased this year and I know I have to increase the rest of them to survive

The days of LLs keeping rents low for tenants are long gone. If you don't approach rents in a business like way you will lose money. The threat of rent controls is pushing rents up as LLs take a 'just in case' approach. For years LLs have been told we should be more business like, not a Mom & Pop business - well that's where we are going & that means annual rent rises!

I already raised one rent by £25 month. I shall be increasing the other ten houses by 4 percent. That's a bit above inflation but it will still keep my houses a little below market value. I have good tenants and I do value them.

I made the mistake early on as a landlord with a tenant having no rent increase for 2 years and no mention of it, on year 3 I proposed a £15 rise - and got a lengthy email complaint saying they believed the rent was fixed as long as they live there.

Now 10 month's into the term I advise a rent review has been carried out even if I set a zero increase.
I would opt for a small increase like £10 even if that's below the market rate because it reminds the tenant that the rent can - and does - rise.

• Christopher Housden
• 10 July 2024 11:02 AM

We had a tenant that had been in 8 years without a rise in rent, two years ago we raised it by £100 and explained she would still be paying £450 below market rent and we knew our mortgage costs were about to rise by £220. This year we put it up by a further £100 and she asked if it could be reduced to only £25 more. We refused. Two months ago we gave her 4 months notice and she is moving out this Saturday having found an alternative. Next week the house goes on the market so will hopefully be down from 6 to 2 rentals.

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Tenants benefitted from a long period of low interest rates, which meant low or no rent increases were possible. Those days are now gone. I have explained to all mine and they understand the situation. There will be a time lag between rates coming down (assuming they do) and rent increases reducing, as there was a time lag when interest rates shot up. Mine all went up by approx £300 pcm per property and it would have been cruel to pass the full increase on to tenants in one go, so they had an increase of less than £100 pcm and will be the same again this year.

Largely due to section 24 I calculated my rents have to go up by £1.70 for every £1 my mortgages go up just to stand still. That doesn’t take account of all the other costs piled on us and neither does it take account of any inflationary pressures on my personal expenses.

Of course we are raising rents. Gone are the good old days when I didn’t increase rents for good longstanding tenants. The government and councils treat us as a cash machine plus the costs of meeting all the regulations have increased, plus the threat of rent controls and sitting tenants reducing property values so hardly surprising.

Looking at the comments here it seems the majority, if not all landlords, have not raised rents annually. So much for the perception of greedy, grasping landlords perpetuated by Shelter, Generation Rant etc.🤔

• Andrew townshend
• 10 July 2024 12:52 PM

I haven't but I will be doing so from now on

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Two of mine are already at the top end of Market going rate so no increases needed there, one still needs an increase which will be 6% this year. Next year they will all get an increase of around 6% or whatever the max is if its capped. 😡
If caps do happen rents in-between Tenancies will sky rocket like they did in Scotland.

• Margaret Venn
• 10 July 2024 10:31 AM

Sarah - Yes rents will sky rocket but rent control where rents are frozen between tenancies will mean they don’t.

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• Andrew townshend
• 16 July 2024 12:46 PM

But how will they control rents between tenancies, mine always increase between tenancies

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Yep, I'll be one of them. No choice due to increased overheads, mostly caused by local authorities.

Oh well.

10% increase across the board twenty tenants worse off ....section 24 to blame ...bash us and we pass the costs on do the math

Us PLL’S are getting more extra costs building or getting thrown at us. We absorb sone but have to increase em a bit . Although tenants really do react to any increase with a WHAT HOW MUCH YOU GREEDY B*******. Why does every tenant think we are rich? Even if like me I don’t put em up every year.