A guest blog by Adrian Gill, Non-Exec Board Member at Reapit.

2020 gave rise to an exodus from the city as work from home became the mandated norm for large swaths of the population, leading homeowners and tenants to reevaluate their residential needs and abandon the urban for the rural. The trend of moving to the countryside or to smaller homesteads outside of cities really hit full swing in the summer when the housing market reopened, with Rightmove noting at one point that enquiries over June and July from city residents about village homes for sale increased by 126% compared with the year prior.

The government has outlined £3.9 billion of new funding in its Heat and Buildings Strategy, detailed in the Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener policy paper, to support decarbonisation efforts in England and Wales between 2022 and 2025. The strategy prioritises plans to incentivise the installation of low-carbon heating systems such as electric heat pumps, replacing old gas boilers in a "simple, fair and cheap way". The end goal is to reduce the UK's dependence on fossil fuels and avoid exposure to "volatile global gas prices" such as those behind the current energy crisis - all by 2035. The plans also support its previous proposals to increase Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards by 2028 in Private Rented Homes.

The process of letting a property is fraught with compliance risk, from taking the holding deposit through to serving the prescribed information within the required time frame. Simply forgetting to attach a document can invalidate a section 21 notice should you ever need to serve one, while overcharging a tenant for a holding deposit could result in a fine of up to £30,000. When lettings demand is high, the risk to your agency of making a mistake increases exponentially. Fortunately, technology can reduce the risk of manual error and ensure that your agency remains compliant with lettings legislation throughout the process and protect your business against costly fines.

The model agreement for a shorthold assured tenancy provided by the government now has a clause on the topic of tenant pet ownership, in a move that aims to create more flexibility for tenants looking to rent a property with a pet. This sits alongside proposed bills to support "pets in lets" - and comes off the back of a 120% increase in demand for pet-friendly rental properties. 

We don't charge our landlords a letting fee. Or an inventory fee. Or a referencing fee. Or any extra fees at all. That's because we've chosen to set Settio Property Experience apart by offering our landlords an all-inclusive management fee instead, simplifying the landlord experience. It doesn't matter if the client requests an extra inspection or anything else - absolutely everything is covered by their managed fees.

Letting agents and landlords utilising Goodlord's Rent Protection & Legal Expenses Insurance* policy will now have their rent protected until vacant possession is obtained, with no cap on the number of months covered. This will allow landlords to claim up to £100,000 worth of missed rent payments and legal expenses.

At Vouch, we're seeing an increased appetite for training in the agencies we speak with. In the context of the Regulation of Property Agents, this is perhaps unsurprising. But that's not the sole catalyst of the trend - there are other factors at play.

Goodlord, the UK’s fastest growing lettings technology and services platform, has acquired the fintech app acasa. This acquisition forms part of Goodlord’s push to broaden the range of market-leading services it offers to letting agents and their landlords and tenants. 

In recent research asking landlords to choose the letting agent services that they find most valuable, the top result was rent collection, at 68.12%. Why? Because chasing rent payments can be time consuming. For agents who shoulder the responsibility of collecting rent for their landlords, late payments from their tenants can delay payments to landlords - and delay your agent fees too.

The pandemic has shown that in the midst of a crisis, there are opportunities out there for businesses flexible and agile enough to spot them and act quickly. The energy crisis is no different. Estate and letting agents can help support their tenants and landlords and ensure that properties stand out by leaning on the growing necessity to offer a green and energy efficient home - and by sharing the resources available in our energy crisis hub.