Landlords under threat as clamour grows for rent controls: Helen Streeton speaks to React News.

Scotland and England have vowed to bring in rent controls and mayors in England are lobbying for the same power.

With the long-term effectiveness not yet proven, there are concerns over the impact of such measures on the supply of rental properties if regulation were to increase, and fears that it could result in landlords “voting with their feet”.

Commercial Real Estate Partner and Head of Build To Rent, Helen Streeton, spoke to React News about what this could mean for the Build To Rent sector:

“Build To Rent developers faced with dwindling returns could also decide to shut up shop. It happened with the Buy to Let sector… When the government abolished interest relief on mortgage payments, a lot of people just withdrew from the market”.

Whilst suggesting that the government could “provide a rent subsidy to tenants or incentivise developers to build more houses by giving them a tax break”, Helen admits there would be a “time lag between introducing a tax break and tenants seeing reduced rents”.

Property industry eyes will be firmly fixed on Scotland to see what happens next…

This article was first published in React News on 14 April 2022 and is available to read in full here, behind the paywall.