Where did landlords come from? The History of Landlording.

Did you know that being a "Lord of the Land" is not a new concept?

It isn't something that suddenly appeared in the 20th century where rich men bought up all the houses and made those who can not afford to purchase pay rent.

The reality is that 'Lords of the Land' stretch all the way back to Norman times. People conquered whole countries to take on land and in turn allowed those who served their monarch a piece of land in which to live - thus they became Baron & Baronesses.

These days the title of Baron or Baroness has become political and no longer holds the same simplicity or meaning.

Before WW1 most people in Britain rented their land and properties, the figure was close to 90% of Britain’s living in rented accommodation. During the first world war, 1915 saw rent regulations brought in to stop landlords exploiting the wages of munition workers.

This was the beginning of big legislative changes for the rental sector. It was legislation that has been designed to protect tenants but actually, once implemented it created a much larger problem hurting the very people it was designed to protect.  

20th CENTURY LANDLORDING

Fast forward through the 20th century and by 1991 only 6-7% of people in Britain rented.

What a dramatic difference!!

The nation was encouraged to buy, buy, buy! Security of tenure became the fuel to encouraging as many people as possible to own their home.

Following the Housing act of 1988 there were many changes that prompted landlords back into the market. With this newly gained wealth, many families inherited property from relatives who had purchased property or land in the boom. These families were encouraged to rent out their surplus spaces.

After the millennium the housing market shot up making home ownership almost unaffordable for young working professionals, especially across cities and in up and coming towns.

The buy to let market started to take off with landlords being offered affordable rates by lenders to help supply more residential housing to those who preferred the convenience or need of renting.

Divorce rates were much higher than in previous years so that meant many households split with a need for one or both to move into rented accommodation for financial reasons.

Changes in 2024

Fast forward to today and we sit here patiently waiting for the renters reform bill.

In the UK we have some very complicated pieces of legislation that are pieced together from a combination of ancient laws, statutory rules and the law of contract. As you can imagine, this doesn’t make it easy for anyone to make or enforce change when your making additions to an already complicated system.

Our job here at Diment is to work with all residential landlords to help encourage long term rentals for tenants who have a need for secure occupancy.

Unfortunately in recent years lenders and inflation have hiked up the rates and many of our landlords are almost held to ransom by the system. If they want to provide affordable housing and keep rents low then they almost need to be outright owners or larger scale investors.

Many people no longer inherit property to bring back into the cycle like in previous years as it is largely unaffordable for regular working professionals to own their own home and rent out another.  The natural cycle has been heavily interrupted by legislation and mortgage rates.

The traditional 'Buy to Let' model has evolved and market rents are at an all time high as a result. Throw in covid times, a huge shift in society and a cost of living crisis and we find ourselves with an whole new model of letting property.

A POSITIVE SHIFT

Landlords would previously have been discouraged when it came to accepting housing benefits or tenants with top ups to their working income.

At Diment Property we firmly believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to secure housing and we made an active choice to break away from the traditional style of lettings.

We ensure that tenants and landlords circumstances align.

We do not encourage long term renters to apply for short term housing and we do not discourage landlords from accepting tenants based on their financial means to pay the rent. It simply needs to be affordable for the tenants.

In time, the rental market will begin to feel different but as an industry we all hold the hope that this change is for the better.