Who’d be a private landlord today? Certainly it’s obvious that many private rented sector landlords (on the evidence of local press interviews and property portal commentary) feel, shall we say, under-appreciated. But the question can also be asked - could they look at things from a different perspective?

To ask this question isn’t to criticise landlords. As with every other sector, the private rented sector is experiencing unprecedented change pressures some of which were referenced in new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s speech outside 10 Downing Street and some of which were evident both before recent national events and before global events such as the pandemic, supply chain shortages and the war in Ukraine.

Specific tax changes have been one pressure that landlords have had to deal with and again, such changes affect other sectors as well as us all as individuals. However, there is evidence of landlords adapting to this particular change vector. The online property trade magazine The Negotiator reports (based on research by estate agents Hamptons) that the number of of Buy to Let business company registrations has passed 300,000 for the first time meaning that there is now an increasing trend by landlords to run their properties via a company structure rather than in their personal names on top of new BTL purchases being made via companies. This represents a doubling of registrations over the last 5 years (a period encompassing many of the change pressures mentioned above). This is not only better for landlords from a tax burden perspective but it’s also evidence of a trend towards an aspect of professionalism within the PRS sector.

Current and upcoming new regulatory “burdens” are another pressure complained of by landlords. Selective licensing is a part of this but landlords mostly (but not exclusively) complain of the fee cost both in terms of the imposition of a fee itself and the follow-on that “good landlords” are thus unfairly paying for bad or “rogue” landlords to be regulated. But, landlords can also benefit from selective licensing especially with regard to new rental reform developments and to new, specifically “Green”, discounted financing products.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has recently announced the provision of £20 million of funding support, through the Green Homes Finance Accelerator, to develop new lending products aimed at providing affordable finance so that customers including landlords can upgrade the energy efficiency of the homes that they own. Some finance providers have already started to offer green financing to BTL operators based on the almost immediate (2025) legal requirement for a good number of PRS properties to have a minimum energy performance rating of “C”. Shawbrook Bank’s latest report - Confronting the EPC Challenge: The path to a sustainable rental market - details both the need and the trend in this regard.

Local authorities are acutely aware of the energy performance conundrum in the PRS and council selective licensing scheme proposals now often reference this with regard to the fuel poverty experienced by PRS tenants. Haringey Council, in its recent licensing scheme proposal estimated that there were around 1,500 PRS properties inside its new scheme that would fail the new EPC requirements. Nottingham Council says in a review of its licensing scheme that started in 2018 that there has been a reduction in failed EPCs from 47% of PRS properties to 14% of properties since the start of the scheme. The evidence is that councils now know that they have to advise and support landlords with regard to financing energy upgrades but this needs to go further and councils need to invite green finance providers to landlord forums. Afterall - within a selective licence scheme area it’s pretty much a captive, and now ready, audience.

Licensing, financing and business registration can all fold into PRS Rental Reform. The proposed new property portal where landlords will be able to upload property documentation means that they will be able to upload evidence that they have a selective licence from a council, a required level of energy efficiency (increasingly demanded by prospective tenants) and they will have been able to ease the path to obtaining available, green finance via both being registered as a business and having a local authority licence to operate which evidence their professionalised outlook. This makes more sense than paying to upgrade a property via personal savings which still too many small landlords are doing currently.

So, there is an upside to selective licensing for both local authorities and landlords together. It does take planning and coping with “Change” has never been as simple as a walk in the park but the need to adapt is universal and PRS landlords viewing their options from this perspective may be able to adapt with less pressure.