A legal expert for ARLA Propertymark has said letting agents and landlords should consider serving a second Section 8 notice if rental arrears accrue to more than six months of missed payments, even if their original Section 8 has yet to come into force. This is because of a crucial change at the six months of arrears mark, when the notice period for tenants drops from six months to just four weeks.

The latest Rental Index from Goodlord, which analyses over 20,000 UK tenancies each month, has shown a strong picture for the rental market as voids hold steady and rents only drop marginally across the UK. 

A survey of 2,750 UK renters has revealed that huge swathes of tenants are anxious about meeting their rental obligations following the pandemic. Alongside this, large numbers are considering moving to a new property as working from home becomes the norm and financial situations shift, found our tenant survey for our latest State of the Industry Report. 

After a torrid 8 months, you could forgive the lettings market for feeling wary about the future. However, the latest State of the Industry Report for Summer 2020 from Goodlord paints a very different picture. Our detailed survey of over 350 lettings professionals has revealed that optimism is higher than pre-pandemic levels, with a huge 80% feeling positive about the future.

Goodlord is excited to announce that its award-winning lettings software has added Reapit, the industry’s leading property management software provider, to its ever-growing list of integrations, further streamlining the lettings process for agents. Agents can get a first look at the integration in a webinar on 10 September, which is being co-hosted by Reapit CCO Paul Starkey.

August proved to be another successful month for the lettings market shows the latest Goodlord Rental Index, as demand from students and young professionals continued to fuel the sector. Rents were up by 2% overall, although some regions fared better than others.  Void periods were up by an average of 2 days across the UK compared to July; reflecting an easing of the ‘rush to rent’ which characterised early summer. However, with void periods in most regions still well below their annual average, the market remains strong heading into autumn. 

The UK’s rental market continues to go from strength to strength, according to the latest Rental Index from Goodlord, with the ‘summer boom’ continuing throughout July.  The latest data shows rents up and voids dramatically down, as tenants continue to hunt out new leases following months of lockdown-induced delays.

A lot has changed in the property market in the past few months and the dynamic between sales and lettings has evolved in the wake of the pandemic and ensuing legislative and policy changes. In a recent podcast, Hamad Al Qubaisi, Lettings Manager at Barrows & Forrester, and Goodlord’s Director of Sales, Costas Frangeskou, spoke with Tom Bower, Head of Marketing & Communications at Barrows & Forrester, about these changes and what they see on the horizon. Here’s the breakdown.

Only 10% of lettings professionals want to go back to the office on a full-time basis at the end of the pandemic, found a recent poll conducted by Goodlord, which shows that many people have embraced the benefits of working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic. Almost half of poll respondents - 47% - said that would prefer to work from the office only if there was increased flexibility to work from home, while a further 24% said they would prefer to work from home on a part-time basis and 20% said they would prefer to work from home full-time. Although the poll included only a small sample size, the results are likely to reflect shifting views to remote working all over the world as a result of an extended lockdown.

Goodlord has announced that it will join forces with referencing platform Vouch to create a new market leader, with the fast-growing Vouch business being welcomed into the Goodlord group.