Student Rental Catastrophe

Local landlord and PDPLA Member John Hodgart wrote in anger to his local MP about the impact upon him (and his student tenants) of the Renters Rights Act if implemented as proposed. He was even less happy when he saw the Ministers response.

John's Original Request

Dear Alan Mak,

I am encouraged to write to you following the introduction of the Renters Rights Act. I would ask that you take up the matter below with the current housing minister, Matthew Pennycook. To date he has pointedly ignored questions around student rentals and shown a complete lack of understanding of what is a critical issue for many university cities.

I am a landlord for several properties (4 bed HMO, 2 bed flat and 1 bed flat) that I have exclusively let to students in Portsmouth since 2016. Throughout the years I have consistently provided good, affordable quality accommodation and have always had very satisfied tenants (I can provide multiple examples of comments during and at the end of my tenancies to support this).

In Portsmouth the norm is for the student rental period to run from the 1st September to the 31st July, an 11 month rental period. This allows for a month where any remedial works etc can be carried out on the properties, thus ensuring that students take on clean, safe and functional accommodation at the start of the tenancy. The new Renters rights bill will challenge this model.

Students, rightly, will want to minimise their rental costs so it is likely that they will reduce their rental period to 9 months. This will benefit this academic year's cohort of students but the impact for next year's student intake is likely to be catastrophic.

To maintain my income (used and taxed as a pension) I will be faced with a situation where, if I want to continue to rent to students, I either need them to start their rental period months before term starts or I accept a void period of 3 months and raise my rents by 22% to cover the extra 2 void months (note I will also have additional costs of 2 months council tax). Alternatively it's highly likely I will rent to non students or sell up.

The unintended (or maybe intended ) consequences of this will be that student private rentals in the city will either be more expensive but mostly not available at all. This will be the same result across the country in all university cities and towns.

My question to Matthew Pennycook is what will the government do to support Portsmouth students with increased housing costs or no accommodation at all?

My right to ask this question is that my residential address is xxxxxxxx, Havant, PO9 2xx. My full name is John G J Hodgart.

I have already tried to communicate with Amanda Martin following an address she gave to the Portsmouth and district landlords association but, as I am not her constituent, I ask that you please put my above question to Matthew Pennycook.

I have copied Amanda Martin, Martin Silman (chairman PDPLA), Ben Beadle (Cheif exec NRLA) and Portsmouth student pad as I believe all of them have an interest and are affected by the matter above. Especially the university who may be faced with extremely challenging problems facing students in academic years commencing 2026 onwards.

I look forwards to your response on this and thank you for your time,

Yours sincerely,

John 

The Ministers Response

John's Follow On Response

 Dear Alan Mak,

I sent the attached email to you to be passed onto the Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook. I received the attached answer.

I am extremely disappointed by the response, it seems to have been written by 'Jonathan' no title, I even doubt that Mathew Pennycook has looked at it!. He has not addressed the point that the rental cycle will now likely be 9 months as he clearly has no interest or knowledge of the student market.

I take particular issue with paragraph 6:

We do not expect removing fixed terms to have a destabilising effect on the student rental
market. New possession ground 4A will give landlords confidence that they will be able to
regain their property to move in other students, in line with the academic year. If tenants do
leave a tenancy early, then landlords will have the option to find new tenants to take their place.

The removal of fixed terms will lead to several factors destabilising the student market.

• Students will opt for a minimum term of 9 months so September to end May. Following year's students will want to start 1st September so potentially 3 months empty, this is not sustainable for any landlord so the property is likely to go to professionals or a family, alternatively the landlord will exit the market by selling up.
• Landlords who opts to stay in the student market will need to increase rents significantly to cover 2-3 month void period with associated additional council tax charges. This increase is likely to be at least 20%-25%.
• New section 4A only applies to HMO properties, many students live in 1,2 and 3 bedroom houses. These properties are even more likely to drop out the student market due to uncertainly over when tenancies will end.
• Ground 4A only allows tenancies to be signed up 6 months prior to start of tenancy so students will need to look for following years accommodation right in the middle of the run up to their exams (March, April). Extremely disruptive.
• Tenancies are likely to collapse as, on a joint tenancy, if one moves out the whole tenancy has to end and all are left without accommodation. Finding new tenants mid tenancy is a particularly difficult prospect and experience suggests its very difficult to find compatible groups quickly and easily.

I maintain, along with many other student landlords in the sector, that the introduction of the 'Renters' Rights Bill' will lead to huge numbers of students without suitable accommodation in all university towns and cities throughout England, it will come to a head in September 2026 and so again I ask:

What will the government do to support Portsmouth (and any other university town or city in England) students with increased housing costs or no accommodation at all for the academic year 2026-27 onwards?

I look forward to you pushing Matthew Pennycook and the government for a suitable response.

My right to ask this question is that my residential address is xxxxxxxxx, Havant, PO9 2xx. My full name is John G J Hodgart.

yours sincerely,

John Hodgart