Hi Matthew,
do you think it's a possibility that mandatory Landlord courses might be introduced by the government in the future? Even though courses might reduce fees of management agents, do you think Landlords will incur additional costs through this training? An interesting prospect...
I believe the Government will adopt a stance whereby all Landlords must exhibit and demonstrate a basic knowledge of level before entering the market, as to protect compliance and best practice of the rental market.
Upon a Landlord demonstrating the required level of market knowledge and regulations, the landlord would pass an initial check from associations that manages and oversees the level of service of lettings agencies and property management companies. This will in turn lead to increased confidence of both landlords and tenants holding each to the correct standards. Landlords similar to lettings agencies and property management should have a qualification and be on a register that can be checked by the general public. A fee to remain on this register of approved Landlords would be an extra cost, but also make them more desirable to potential tenants (the higher and better your past reviews,the more chance you have of charging higher rental fees)
This will have a positive effect for lettings agencies and property management companies, as Landlords will further understand the time, effort and skills taken to manage their properties in the most efficient and effective manner. Landlords main reason for complaining about increased property management costs are down to reduced profit and unclear breakdowns of what is being charged and why? Once both the Landlords and the letting agencies/property management can fully understand each others total costs then parity can be restored.
Many Landlords are facing increased maintenance costs, especially as their are presently more secondary properties than new builds in the UK. So there must be the realisation that as the property gets older year on year maintenance costs become more expensive reducing long term profitability (even more so when monthly rental charges begin to become more in line with wages, as new build activity picks up) Landlords must be keeping an eye on the level of profit attainable over a long term period (say 10-15 years down the line) and like stocks and shares monitoring yield return, selling when hitting minimum level of profitability.
The next few years will see the property ownership increase and the rental market share decrease, as 20-39's are now looking to take out a mortgage rather than pay extremely high rental prices for no long term benefits. Landlords are now faced with the dilemma of taking advantage of the those who cannot afford to buy and maximising their profit, whilst also keeping rent at a price seemed desirable to the largest portion of the UK population.