Very good article. I would disagree on the points that being a Buy to Let landlord is lucrative. There are now so many expensive certificates that are required on top of the maintenance and mortgage costs that a large number of private BTL landlords are selling out. Those buying tend to be large corporate landlords that have teams of in-house lawyers, surveyors, letting agents, Inventory clerks, gas engineers, credit checkers, EPC clerks and electricians. So they can employ such a team full time to manage a large portfolio and the unit cost is lower than for a guy with 1 or 2 flats.
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme has made it virtually impossible to ever hold back some of the deposit to cover damage or cleaning when a tenant leaves. Their adjudicators require the landlord to upload so many documents/photos and write extensive arguments that it often isn't worth the time to do so, and then they still judge in the tenant's favour.
It takes 12-18 months to evict a tenant that just refuses to pay his/her rent under the UK legal system, so with legal and bailiff fees, and then the council tax and repairs etc that need to be paid during the void periods, those kind of tenants are likely to make the landlord bankrupt.
Just read OpenRent's landlords' forum to see the nightmares that so many landlords are going through and therefore trying to escape the business as soon as they can.
The UK property market has also begun to slow significantly so there's no hope of capital gains on property this year, and next year is the 18th year of the land Economist, Fred Harrison's 18 year cycle which is usually the year when we get a property crash.
Team, just some further thoughts on this. I agree the above points make it impractical where you are faced with doing the above as a manual process as an amateur Landlord. It's also not all that easy to exit (it's not as simple as a stock market investment when you click sell!). But anyone "going professional" (willingly or otherwise) would end up using Commercial Property Management Software with high levels of automation - for example:
So it becomes a click (or maybe not even that - with AI - Re-leased have recently released an AI that will scour tenancy agreements to advise on T&Cs when speaking with Tenants)
And actually another example is Yardi -a system used by part of Watkin Jones (the Fresh division for Student Accommo) which I cover in this article:
To your final point of a slowing property market and a possible crash - I see that as entirely positive for the Rental market (and therefore positive for BTL landlords - and therefore LINV) - in fact I further statistic is that over that same 18 year cycle house prices have outstripped rents by 131% although over the past 5 years that's not the case (rents are rising faster).
I agree but it’s also the reason why rents are rising rapidly - the government are creating a moat that the euphemism that landlords are becoming “more professional” actually means!
From a Linv point of view 1000 mortgages with one guy or 1 with 1000 are the same number of mortgages!
Very good article. I would disagree on the points that being a Buy to Let landlord is lucrative. There are now so many expensive certificates that are required on top of the maintenance and mortgage costs that a large number of private BTL landlords are selling out. Those buying tend to be large corporate landlords that have teams of in-house lawyers, surveyors, letting agents, Inventory clerks, gas engineers, credit checkers, EPC clerks and electricians. So they can employ such a team full time to manage a large portfolio and the unit cost is lower than for a guy with 1 or 2 flats.
The Tenancy Deposit Scheme has made it virtually impossible to ever hold back some of the deposit to cover damage or cleaning when a tenant leaves. Their adjudicators require the landlord to upload so many documents/photos and write extensive arguments that it often isn't worth the time to do so, and then they still judge in the tenant's favour.
It takes 12-18 months to evict a tenant that just refuses to pay his/her rent under the UK legal system, so with legal and bailiff fees, and then the council tax and repairs etc that need to be paid during the void periods, those kind of tenants are likely to make the landlord bankrupt.
Just read OpenRent's landlords' forum to see the nightmares that so many landlords are going through and therefore trying to escape the business as soon as they can.
The UK property market has also begun to slow significantly so there's no hope of capital gains on property this year, and next year is the 18th year of the land Economist, Fred Harrison's 18 year cycle which is usually the year when we get a property crash.
Team, just some further thoughts on this. I agree the above points make it impractical where you are faced with doing the above as a manual process as an amateur Landlord. It's also not all that easy to exit (it's not as simple as a stock market investment when you click sell!). But anyone "going professional" (willingly or otherwise) would end up using Commercial Property Management Software with high levels of automation - for example:
https://help.re-leased.com/hc/en-au/articles/23849119739668-Managing-Deposits-Security-Deposits-for-Tenancies
So it becomes a click (or maybe not even that - with AI - Re-leased have recently released an AI that will scour tenancy agreements to advise on T&Cs when speaking with Tenants)
And actually another example is Yardi -a system used by part of Watkin Jones (the Fresh division for Student Accommo) which I cover in this article:
https://theoakbloke.substack.com/p/watkin-jones-youve-been-gone-too
To your final point of a slowing property market and a possible crash - I see that as entirely positive for the Rental market (and therefore positive for BTL landlords - and therefore LINV) - in fact I further statistic is that over that same 18 year cycle house prices have outstripped rents by 131% although over the past 5 years that's not the case (rents are rising faster).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/291787/average-mean-weekly-rent-of-private-renters-in-england-uk-y-on-y/
OB
Software looks interesting. I see your point that maybe falling house prices could tempt more landlords to use LINV to buy in to the market.
If you believe a lot of developers buy property at auction rising numbers sold at auction would also be a positive for LINV:
https://www.eigpropertyauctions.co.uk/news/pad/2025/q2
Up 50% since 2021
I agree but it’s also the reason why rents are rising rapidly - the government are creating a moat that the euphemism that landlords are becoming “more professional” actually means!
From a Linv point of view 1000 mortgages with one guy or 1 with 1000 are the same number of mortgages!
OB
Weirdly I can't see a single RNS for LINV at https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/LINV/lendinvest-plc/company-page but can see a few here https://markets.ft.com/data/equities/tearsheet/summary?s=LINV:LSE
LINVing on a prayer