What do Landlords Need to be Thinking about in 2022?

Posted by Alphaletz on 23rd February 2022 -

Paul Shamplina, founder of Landlord Action, Chief Commercial Officer at Hamilton Fraser and on Channel 5’s “Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords”, takes a few minutes to speak with Alphaletz founder Richard Jackson about what landlords need to be thinking about in 2022.

We had a great chat with Paul which started off discussing how the private rental sector has doubled in the last 10-12 years. In fact, the private rental sector equates to around 20% of the housing market.

Paul and Richard both advocated how landlords now need to be much more professional. As Paul said, “We need to think of our rental business as a business.”

What’s the biggest change coming for landlords?

With some of the biggest changes in the private rental sector taking place over the last three years, Paul commented the biggest change is to come in the next 2-3 years with the Renters Reform Bill. The Bill, as stated by the Law Society, proposes:

• end ‘no-fault’ evictions by repealing section 21 of the Housing Act 1988
• extend the grounds for possession under section 8
• remove landlords’ ability to grant new assured shorthold tenancies (ASTs)
• improve the processing of repossession orders

On top of legal changes, Paul reflected on how the impact of the housing market, caught in the midst of covid, affected both commercial and residential landlords.

To self-manage or not to self-manage?

An interesting topic for discussion was to self-manage or not to self-manage.

Paul commented that “Landlords need to take the view now as 85% of landlords work full time jobs and, do they have the ability and the tools to assess and ensure they are compliant? Are they dealing with things properly? Landlords can get fined a lot of money.”

An observation by Richard is that small landlords seem to be dropping out of the market while the bigger and more professional landlords are expanding. This is where systems are so important.

Richard is seeing some real benefits with landlords using a system like Alphaletz. “We’re saving landlords 50% of their time which is important, especially if they’re working full time jobs. We help landlords save time, save money, and we’re seeing them expand their portfolios.”

What should Landlords be thinking about now?

Richard posed the question to Paul who replied, “Rents are continually going up, demand is strong. Landlords should be thinking about automisation, the right suppliers, be conscious of tax, capital gains tax and how will that change in the future.”

With so much change for landlords to contend with, and with years of expertise in the private rented sector, Paul showed us his book (handily stored on his desk) titled, The Landlords Friend.

Paul commented, “It’s important to put a price on your time. Landlords need to understand tenants’ expectations are higher than ever before. In a session I recently attended, not many landlords had heard of Build to Rent.”

Paul continued “Tenants will pay more money if they get a better experience. Landlords need to be wise what’s going on around them in the marketplace. You need to have the mind set of treating tenants as customers.”

Paul made a good point that landlords are housing providers – that’s how they should see themselves.

The conversation continued. Listen to the full conversation here.

A big thank you to Paul Shamplina for taking the time to chat with us.