The latest news from the lettings industry

The Gas Safety Register's latest research has highlighted that seven million homes in the UK could house an unsafe gas appliance - with the potential to cause carbon monoxide poisoning, gas leaks, fires, and explosions. Landlords and agents bear the responsibility of ensuring these appliances are safe with yearly checks - or face a fine or a potential custodial sentence - under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Short-term lets are seen as both a boon and a threat to the rental sector. Now that the hospitality industry is starting to kick into gear after a period of Covid-related restrictions and limited activity, short-term lets are making headlines - but is it to the detriment of buy-to-let landlords?

Lettings experts Goodlord and Vouch have released their largest ever State of the Lettings Industry report, an in-depth survey which provides an annual temperature check for the market. The report, which is released every September and this year involved 550 agents and 1,700 tenants from across the UK, shows in detail which pandemic-induced shifts have proved short-term, and what market movements look set to reshape the industry permanently. Explore the full report here.

 A survey of 550 UK lettings professionals and 1,700 tenants has shown that the increase in arrears has stabilised over the past 12 months and the rental market is showing strong signs of optimism from both tenants and agents.

Notice periods in England will return to normal levels from 1 October 2021, the government has confirmed to Propertymark. Notice periods have been four-months in all but the most serious cases since June 2021. In August, the notice period for cases where there are less than four months of unpaid rent was reduced to two months.

Christopher Watkin is the lettings industry's biggest advocate for content marketing, advising letting agents to create articles, reports, videos, and more in order to reach new landlords. "If you try and go out there and sell stuff to people, they get switched off, so why don't you actually give them something which is of interest?" Watkin shared suggestions for letting agents looking to try this approach in an on-demand Goodlord webinar. Read on for his top tips or watch the full webinar on demand now.

Letting agents can now register deposits at the click of a button thanks to a new integration between Goodlord and mydeposits, which has been developed in partnership with Andrews Property Group. The integration, which allows letting agents to register deposits with mydeposits Custodial and mydeposits Insured directly through Goodlord's lettings platform, is now being made available to all Goodlord customers after the success of its trial period with Andrews. 

This Autumn promises to be one of the most pivotal in the rental market for a generation - or at least as far as England is concerned. Those who have been following my articles on Newsagent or watching our recent webinars, will know that after the abysmal void that Covid-19 has been for much of Government policy, we are all anticipating the publication of the White Paper on the Renters' Reform Bill and seeing if the few words and sentences of the good intentions, uttered by ministers materialises into real action.

Rents continued to climb across most of the country in August, with Goodlord's Rental Index again recording a highest figure for monthly average rents for two years. While the overall average void period increased slightly, the national average remains low, indicating that the market is strong heading into autumn.

We're constantly adapting to new rules and regulations but we're also
breaking every system down to see where we can improve," says Thomas Izod,
Branch Manager at Kallars in our free guide, How to maximise your agency's potential. "Now’s the time to start preparing for the changes that are coming in. You're not maximising your returns if you're still doing the same thing you were doing ten years ago.”