Welcome to our Christmas Newsletter 2023

Landlord Broadband welcomes you to the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter. We hope that you enjoy it. If the latest industry news, customer market updates, and new content interests you, then read on. Want more? You can check out our previous newsletter here.

Industry News

Legal

Jeremy Hunt has used his Autumn Statement to reveal measures to increase the local housing allowance to the 30th percentile of local market rents. This has been requested by many landlords and letting agencies as it is the equivalent of some £800 per year per household. Hunt says this will help around 1.6m households currently renting both the private and social housing sectors. The Autumn statement has also highlighted that there will be consultation on a change to Permitted Development Rights to allow any house to be converted into two flats, so long as there is no change to the external appearance. Also, Households close to new electricity infrastructure will receive up to £1,000 per year off energy bills.

Finance

Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) , an independent treasury department released its central forecast for the UK housing market. The statement predicts house prices to grow at a modest 0.9% in 2023 but then decrease by 4.7% in 2024. This will mean an average home in the UK will cost to a circa £266,000 in the final quarter of 2024. However OBR also expects a gradual recovery in the housing market after this downturn.

Mark Harris, chief executive of mortgage broker SPF Private Clients suggests “The main issue for the housing market and wider economy is that transactions are 20% down this year, with home sales set to be at the lowest level in a decade. This impacts not just those working directly in the industry – the estate agents, mortgage brokers, removals people etc. – but also many tradespeople. A more fluid housing market is good for the economy and more needs to be done to stimulate activity.”

Technology

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt stated: “The government is providing £3 million for a range of measures to improve the home buying and selling process, including pilots to develop property tech products and to digitise local council property data.” This unexpected boost for PropTech and digital technology came as a surprise to many. The Landmark Information Group says they are “delighted to see the Government commit today to making this a reality – with a £3m investment to enable technology to lead the way in making a real difference to home movers up and down the country” They go on to say “The transaction time for buying and selling property has crept up and up in recent years, causing needless stress and delays for both industry and home-movers. In the UK, the process now takes 19 weeks – 77% longer than in 2007, according to our latest data – and this has been stagnating the property market for far too long.” Investment in technology could make it available sooner and ensure the house-moving process works efficiently.

Customer Markets

Landlords

Landlords can expect to face rising costs of up to 80% in the next 2 years according to the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA). This makes small scale landlords extremely vulnerable as they face the prospect of struggling to break even in the next two years. Research suggested the average expected increase in annual interest payments by 2025 is £7,700. The cost of borrowing is expected to soar to 80% as they refinance off historically low fixed rates. IMLA suggests that landlords’ non-rental income is roughly in line with tenant income except in London where tenants earn substantially more. Landlords remain optimistic according to Butterfield Mortgages. More than a quarter of private landlords plan to increase the size of their property portfolios in the next year, compared to just one in 14 who plan to sell up.

Build to Rent

Britain’s largest listed residential landlord, Grainger, has struck a long-term deal with Network Rail and the property developer Bloc Group. The plan is to deliver 2,000 Build to Rent homes across the country.
So far the partnership has already seen one project ‘The Barnum’ through to completion.  It consists of 348 BTR units in a 10-storey block next to Nottingham Midland stations. The success of this project gives opportunity for more collaboration to deliver a further 2000 much needed high quality rental homes.
Grainger operates a £3.3 billion portfolio of 10,208 private rental homes and has a £1.6 billion pipeline of 5,634 BTR units. Trading statements from Grainger showed occupancy across its private rented portfolio hit 98.6 per cent, an all-time high, with rental revenue growth of 8.0 per the past year.

PBSA

Olympian Homes, a real estate company with buildings in York and Leeds has completed a funding agreement to deliver the world’s tallest PBSA building. The first scheme in Leeds at the Cirrus Point site was acquired in 2021 but completion is set for 2026. It is planned to include over 660 beds and 45 floors making it the tallest building in Leeds and the tallest PBSA building in the world. Facilities at the accommodation will include gym, yoga studio, cinema, games room, co-working space, group dining facilities and a roof terrace with amazing views across Leeds. There is also a second scheme based in Rialto House in York. This will have 275 student rooms based between the university and the city centre. GMI Construction were also awarded the construction contract and work started on site in August this year, with completion set for the 2025 academic year. These projects address the major supply/demand imbalance of PBSA within both cities and highlights the confidence in bringing forward major investment into the PBSA sector.

Serviced Accommodation

SilverDoor, a serviced accommodation provider has launched a carbon calculator for the global corporate housing sector. The calculator collects carbon emissions data for clients to set, monitor and report on their business travel sustainability goals with specific focuses on water and energy consumption. Other elements include climate control, water consumption and laundry. The calculator provides a per-night estimation for each apartment and the wider building. The Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index is used for comparison. This calculator can give customers transparency and help make big steps to making serviced accommodation more sustainable.

Social Housing

British charity Shelter has held a successful campaign in petition about the Renters Reform Bill. It now has over 123,000 of a target 125,000 signatories for the petition. Shelter believes that there’s a conspiracy amongst MPs, landlords and others in the private rental sector to water down the Renters Reform Bill. Shelter’s website the charity claims:  “It’s renters who are feeling the stress of the constant threat that they’ll be served a no-fault eviction. It’s renters who are spending huge sums of money on rent in substandard properties. It’s renters who are getting ill, living in unsafe homes, scared to complain in case they’re hit with an eviction notice.” Shelter’s website gives a simple guide to the email to Michael Gove, including a template outlining every element that petitioners should include.

Landlord Conference 2023

Here is some footage of Landlord Broadband at the NRLA’s Landlord Conference 2023:

Top 5 Christmas Movies

Landlord Broadband wishes you a Merry Christmas

Christmas wouldn’t be the same without these films! We’re looking at our top 5 favorite Christmas movies for this list, from films like ‘The Snowman’ to ‘Die Hard’?! Which movie gets you ready for the festive season?

We hope you enjoyed this latest edition of our quarterly newsletter. We hope to see you next season!

If you would like to know how Landlord Broadband can help you:Email us at customer.services@landlordbroadband.com
Call 0333 577 0600
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