Barwell: no tenancy length increases for buy-to-let landlords

In media appearances over the weekend, Gavin Barwell made longer private sector tenancies the headline announcement of an offer to renters in the White Paper.

But it emerged after the document was published that this involves seeking agreements with housing associations, local authorities and institutional investors developing homes for private rent and would have no direct impact on the buy-to-let sector.

“My hope is that when you get those players coming in, that will disrupt the market and will encourage other landlords to do so as well,” Mr Barwell told Inside Housing.

“If you tried to force people to do it at the opposite end of the market [buy-to-let], I think history is very clear about what happens when you have rent controls – I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

There are at least 1.75 million buy-to-let landlords in the UK, according to statistics from HMRC – many of whom own multiple properties. The professional build-to-rent sector, while growing, remains far smaller.

According to the most recent English Housing Survey, there are 4.3 million private renters in the UK.

Wery disappointing @GavinBarwellMP. Build to Rent will give longer tenancies to a tiny number of renters @PeteApps https://t.co/TWAuJqdHvx pic.twitter.com/yEkcQ5sf9e

— Toby Lloyd (@tobylloyd) February 8, 2017

In a consultation on changes to the Build to Rent sector, the government proposed confirming that specialist Build to Rent providers can offer a discounted rent (at least 20% of the local market value) instead of more traditional affordable housing.

In order to do this the government proposed requiring the landlords to offer three year tenancies to any tenants who want them, as well as making 20% of the development affordable.

Update: at 12.15pm, 8.2.17

This piece was updated to include some information from the Build to Rent consultation