Landlord awareness and sentiment
Our members in Wales have expressed concern regarding the low levels of awareness among landlords about the Welsh Government’s plans to introduce fair rents, with 78 per cent of letting agents reporting that the general level of awareness among their landlords is low to very low.
From this, it is clear that more needs to be done to engage landlords in the consultation process in order to reach this key stakeholder group. A lack of awareness could lead to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the potential policy.
Of those landlords who are aware of proposed legislation, many have raised their concerns about it with their agent. In our survey, 41 per cent of agents reported that landlords had raised concerns with them about the potential fair rent legislation, which is a significant percentage.
It suggests that landlords are anxious about the impact of this legislation on their ability to provide homes in Wales. If landlords are unable to cover costs, including their own time, mental and physical effort, mortgage payments and maintenance costs, many are likely to choose to leave the sector.
Letting agent sentiment
After asking about landlords’ concerns, we probed letting agents for their expert opinion on the likely outcome of any fair rent legislation.
Our results show that the majority of responding agents do not believe that such legislation would be beneficial to the PRS or society as a whole. 89 per cent of letting agents responded “no” to the question of whether fair rent legislation would benefit the PRS, and 79 per cent responded “no” to the question of whether it would benefit society.
Interestingly, only 21 per cent believed that the legislation could benefit tenants. 53 per cent responded “no” to the question of whether fair rent legislation would benefit tenants and 26 per cent said “yes and no”.
