YouGov landlord survey - landlords take a hit

Introduction

The NRLAs Research Observatory undertakes regular surveys of the wider landlord community. This latest poll was undertaken by YouGov. Fieldwork was conducted in December 2021. The poll surveyed 1,013 landlords from across England & Wales.   

This survey is an opportunity to (i) collect the views of the wider landlord community and not solely those of a our members and (ii) compare the views and lived experience of our members to this wider group.

Landlords take an income hit

Through the pandemic we have asked our members many times about its impact on landlords. We asked this wider group of landlords how their rental income streams had been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic:

So, when landlords were asked how their rental income streams had been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic:

• 78% of landlords reported their tenants had paid their rent on time as usual

This is consistent with other recent polling undertaken by NRLA:

• In September 2020 a similar poll (also conducted by YouGov) reported 72% of landlords (unweighted) had received their rent on time as normal.
• A recent tenant survey conducted by the NRLA found 79% of tenants had paid their rent on time and as normal throughout the pandemic.

This is not to underplay the significance of almost one-in-ten landlords (8%) reporting "major issues with at least one tenant" with rent arrears. 

The hit has often been substantial

For many landlords, losses were small but not inconsiderable:

• Most landlords who experienced losses lost up to 30% of their income - but this is skewed towards the lower end of the 0%-30% range.

The surge in landlords seeking possession....didn't happen

Over 90% of landlords did not issue any sort of possession notice during 2021.  Again this is consistent with the NRLAs own polling (to be published) through its quarterly survey.

The reasons given for issuing a notice - in descending order - were:

1. Rent-arrears
2. To sell property
3. Anti-social behaviour  

(The numbers are small - with less than 10% of landlords issuing possession notices so the perecentages for each reason are not presented).  

Universal Credit..the impacts

Landlords were asked whether they let to tenants who claimed Universal Credit (UC):

• 72% of landlords stated they had not let property to Universal Credit claimants over the previous 12 months.
• 18% of landlords stated they presently let to UC claimants
• A further 6% stated they had done so at some point in the last twelve months.

Those landlords whose tenants were either claiming or had recently claimed UC were asked whether the end of the £20pw uplift in Universal Credit had affect their tenants’ ability to pay rent as scheduled:

• Two-thirds (68%) stated their tenants were paying rent as normal.

While this is a lower proportion that the all-sample 78% quoted above, this is a figure drawn from a much smaller sub-set: only 24% of the survey had tenants who were claiming UC. It is therefore difficult to say (without a statistical test) whether this is a meaningful difference or not.  

Landlords were also asked whether the ending of the temporary £20pw uplift in Universal Credit had affect their tenants’ ability to pay rent:

• Two-thirds (68%) of landlords with UC-claiming tenants stated their tenants were paying rent as normal.
• Just 9% of landlords stated they had tenants who were in arrears because of this change in Universal Credit.

Views on landlord-tenant conciliation

The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) have been urging government to support new approaches to dispute resolution and the development of a new landlord/tenant conciliation service.

Landlords were asked which elements of a mediation service – involving a trained, impartial person acting as a referee in a dispute between landlord and tenant – were attractive to landlords.

The proportion of landlords who found each proposed  element either “very attractive” or “fairly attractive”:

• A freely accessible service (83% of landlords would find this attractive).
• The creation of legally binding terms for tenants to follow (79%).
• Mediation to start before applying to court (therefore preventing delays in possession proceedings) (75%).
• A higher court priority given where breaches of mediation hearings take place (73%).

Landlords were asked about proposals for landlords to join a redress scheme, enabling tenants to have access to a 'Housing Complaints Resolution Service'. Only 19% of landlords were aware of these proposals and most of those only “partially” rather than “fully”.

Landlords were asked whether they would find it more acceptable to have a landlord-led redress service: similar proportions stated (i) a preference for a landlord-led scheme; (ii) a view that such a scheme should be independent and (iii) there would need to be more information before deciding on a preferred model and delivery structure.

Summary

Through our internal research, the validaty of which is confirmed by our wider landlord surveys - here conducted by YouGov - a clear narrative is building of how the PRS is shaping up after the pandemic.

Many landlords have taken a financial hit - occasionally this has been severe.  Many seem to have accepted the losses rather than increase litigation and take back posession of property.   

For a number of landlords, the financial strain of the pandemic has been great. But for many more it is not the pandemic or changes to benefit levels which have been the source of strain. It is changes in taxation which are driving many landlords away from the PRS.    

Note that all figures quoted in this paper have been weighted by portfolio size. We have used the findings from the English Private Landlord Survey 2018 (the most recent edition) as the basis of the sample weights. There is no equivalent study for Wales, but it is not unreasonable to assume portfolio size in Wales is broadly similar to that in England. The pollsters ensured 5% of the survey returns were from landlords with a portfolio focused in Wales. This reflects the membership profile of the NRLA and the returns of the NRLA’s quarterly survey of members (see the NRLA’s In Focus series for more information on our own polling).  

Through this approach to sampling, we are even more confident than usual that the findings of the research reflect the views of the whole residential landlord community. It is striking how similar the responses of landlords in this survey are to those of the NRLA membership when similar questions have recently been asked in our own quarterly polling.