The Big Issue magazine has claimed controversially that if 1.5 million landlords do leave the market, it would be a ‘good thing’.

This comment follows research from portal SpareRoom which says a shockingly high number of landlords will quit the sector after many realise the extent and severity of the measures within Labour’s Renters’ Rights Bill.

Its claim is extrapolated from interviews with some 1,000 landlords about their intentions, during which two-thirds said they were planning on selling their rental properties, with another 88% saying that greater regulation was leading to a “lack of confidence in the sector”.

Housing stock

The Big Issue says that “while selling or no longer renting a property out might remove it from the market for the short-term, the property remains part of the country’s housing stock and can be bought by someone to live in, another landlord to rent out again or be turned into a short-term let”.

Readers responded to the article in the comments, saying: “It would mean more homes on the market for people to buy at a time when private rents are at record highs, making it tough to afford out-of-reach house prices”.

If the PRS were to continue to shrink by about 2% annually, the outcome could be positive.”

But The Big Issue doesn’t explain where the money for those purchases would come from and instead points to Lord Best’s suggestion that landlords could be given a reduced Capital Gains Tax bill if they sold to housing associations.

The article concludes by quoting Lord Best, saying: “If the PRS were to continue to shrink by about 2% annually, the outcome could be positive, with both an additional 500,000 homeowners and 500,000 more social tenancies”.