Nobody has any sympathy with landlords, and some of them are scum, but unless something changes the shortage of rental properties will become an increasing problem. (Ironically that might drive up rents which could make it attractive again!!)
Rental prices across the UK increased in 2023 by an average of 7%. House prices went down everywhere in 2023, so you would think that the returns would attract more BTL Landlords, but that isn't the case, so there's a shortage of affordable rental properties and the prices keep going up.
It's much harder to get a BTL mortgage, which reduces the number of private landlords. Also, the Government threat of making it harder to evict tenants has scared a lot of BTL landlords, as well as the change in tax rules / rates, making it less profitable and more risky.
The knock on effect of the current current market conditions are fuelling Lloyds Bank, who are aiming to be the UK's biggest private landlord in the next five years though it's Citra Living division. Obviously their risk is spread across thousands of properties and they don't have problems raising finance, plus they're able to negotiate really good deals with developers.
It might just help consolidate the private rental market in to a few "super" landlords and become a little more professional. However they are mostly using the "build to Rent" model, so there will still be a lot of old stock being rented for many years to come by smaller private landlords.
