Renting reforms a ‘massive opportunity’ for letting agents
Panel of some of the industry's most respected figures says Renters’ Rights Bill should be considered an opportunity not a threat.
A panel of some of the property industry’s most influential figures has told letting agents to embrace the opportunity for extra revenue provided by the Renters’ Rights Bill (RRB) rather than fretting about the damage it might do.
The comments come from a panel discussion at The Negotiator Conference in the Grosvenor House Hotel and featured Anghard Trueman, President of ARLA Propertymark, Ben Beadle, CEO at NRLA, David Smith, Partner in Commercial Litigation at JMW and Heidi Shackell, CEO of The Lettings Hub.
The property industry must now embrace it and look forward.”
All four agreed that RRB was now a done deal and that it was not as bad as first feared. NRLA chief Ben Beadle said: “The property industry must now embrace it and look forward”.
Beadle added that although some landlords had exited the market, there had not been the feared mass exodus and that the green energy rules were of far more concern.
Fantastic opportunity
The panel also felt that, with the advent of RRB and yet more rules for landlords to navigate, there is what Heidi Shackell of The Lettings Hub calls ‘a fantastic opportunity’ to get landlords under management.
Shackell said that with 15% of landlords not even aware of RRB’s existence, they will struggle to cope without the guiding hands of a letting agent.
She does, though, believe that the current three-tier system of management may have to adapt to cope with the changes but suggests that additional management income may more than make up for revenue lost with the ending of fixed-term contracts and renewal fees.
And, as legal expert, David Smith of JMW Solicitors said, it’s landlords that tend to be prosecuted when things go wrong, so there will be plenty of incentive for them to hand over the management to agents.
Additional revenue
Smith suggested that the ending of Section 21 notices will also encourage landlords to get agents to manage their properties. The vetting process, he said, will need to be far more rigorous and agents could provide an ear to the ground to head off any problems with tenants before they arise.
Propertymark’s Angharad Trueman added that getting and maintaining landlords’ positions on the new database was yet another potential revenue stream for agents.
