Landlords must be encouraged to stay in the market or more vulnerable tenants will become homeless as properties are sold to first time buyers, a landlord leader has warned.

The NRLA’s Ben Beadle is also for tax reforms to encourage landlords as new official figures show the number of people losing their homes after their landlord sells up.

Between October and December 2023 some 5,400 households in the private rented sector in England qualified for council support to prevent homelessness specifically because their landlord decided to sell the property.

But the most recent data shows that between April and June 2024, this number had increased to 7,130 households.

Tenants who are suffering as landlords decide to sell up.”

The figures show that selling a property is the single biggest reason for a landlord to end a tenancy, and almost three times greater than the next most common reason.

Whilst the Renters’ Rights Bill will increase the time before a landlord can sell a property, the NRLA argues that more needs to be done to encourage responsible landlords to keep rental properties in the first place.

The data also shows that a third of landlords (31%) are planning to sell rental properties in the next two years, up from 22%. In contrast, just 7% say they are planning to provide new rental homes in the next two years, compared with 11% in 2021.

It comes as an average of 21 people are chasing every available home to rent.

The NRLA is calling on the Government to reform the way rented housing is taxed to support and encourage the supply of new, decent-quality homes on the market.

Clear plan

Alongside this, says the NRLA, responsible landlords need confidence that when ‘no fault’ repossessions end, legitimate possession cases will be processed far more swiftly by the courts than at present.

That is why the NRLA is calling on the Government to publish a clear plan to improve what the housing minister Matthew Pennycook accepts is a court system “on its knees”.

“Right across the country, it is tenants who are suffering as landlords decide to sell up. No amount of changing the rules about when landlords can sell will address the central problem in the rental market, namely a chronic shortage of homes to meet demand,” says Ben Beadle (main image), Chief Executive of the NRLA.

“What tenants need is greater choice. That means encouraging and supporting the vast majority of responsible landlords to stay and continue to provide decent quality housing.”

Polly Neate, outgoig chief executive of Shelter, strikes a different tone: “Across England, extortionate private rents combined with a dire lack of genuinely affordable social homes is trapping more and more people in homelessness”.