News Updates

Agent highlights social housing decline behind UK housing emergency David Alexander, CEO of Scotland’s largest lettings agency, attributes the current housing emergency to a significant drop in social housing stock amid population growth and changing

Commonhold introduces new legal duties and shared costs for flat owners The draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill will shift flat ownership to commonhold, giving owners freehold rights but also new collective responsibilities and financial

Government proposes ground rent cap with phased reduction to peppercorn The UK government has unveiled plans to cap most existing long residential ground rents at £250 annually, reducing them to a peppercorn after 40 years.

Renters Rights Act changes impact student tenancies and notice periods The Renters Rights Act, implemented in May 2026, has introduced significant changes affecting student renters, particularly regarding notice periods and tenancy types in HMOs and

Propertymark calls for benefits increase to aid private tenants Propertymark has urged the government to raise housing support to better match private rental costs, highlighting the widening gap between Local Housing Allowance and actual rents

BTL lender cuts mortgage rates for landlords across product ranges Molo, a specialist mortgage lender for UK and overseas landlords, has reduced its buy-to-let mortgage rates by 12 basis points on both Standard and Specialist

More tenants use AI to create complex complaint letters Letting agents report a rise in tenants using artificial intelligence to generate detailed and sometimes unfounded complaints, increasing the workload for agencies and raising questions about

Unfreezing Local Housing Allowance would not increase rents New analysis by the National Residential Landlords Association suggests that raising Local Housing Allowance rates would not cause private rented sector rents to rise. This comes as

Bath council proposes 50% fine increase for non-responsive landlords Bath & North East Somerset council is consulting on a new enforcement policy that could add 50% to fines for landlords who fail to respond to

Buy to let repossessions fall despite hundreds taken in Q2 2026 Some 630 buy to let mortgaged properties were repossessed in the second quarter of 2026, a 22% decrease from the previous quarter and 20%