'Greedy', 'dishonest' and 'slimy' - landlords' reputation in tatters

The results of a recent YouGov survey by property marketplace TheHouseShop.com suggest that landlord’s reputations are in tatters.

According to the survey results, it appears that the British public already have a very low opinion of landlords, with a staggering 50% (when excluding those that said “don’t know”), saying they associate landlords with the term “greedy” and 36% (just over one in third) associating them with the word “difficult”.

TheHouseShop’s Nick Marr warns that landlords could be at risk of earning the same negative reputation as UK politicians or bankers.

Due to the UK’s housing crisis, more people than ever before are dependent upon landlords for their housing and now more than ever, landlords need to run damage control and understand how to better manage their relationships with their tenants, in order to improve their image and avoid further negative press.

In light of this, TheHouseShop.com, have created a handy, free, downloadable guide aimed at landlords, to help them improve their relationships with their tenants. While the vast majority of landlords are both professional and reliable, they are at risk of being tarred with the same brush as the few rogue landlords who are damaging the rental sector’s reputation.

Click here to receive the free downloadable guide: https://www.thehouseshop.com/guides/landlord/managing-tenant-relationships

Question Asked:

In general, which, if any, of the following words do you associate with landlords?

Results

(Re-based to exclude "don't know's")

Nick Marr, Co-Founder of TheHouseShop.com, comments on the results of the survey and the factors that have contributed to landlords’ apparent image problem:

“Landlords and investors have benefitted from substantial yields and consistent demand as a result of the UK’s housing shortage, but they now risk alienating their cash-strapped tenants who have had no choice but to hand over increasing proportions of their income in monthly rent payments.”

“It is this image of wealthy private investors and struggling tenants that has contributed heavily to the negative reputation for UK landlords. However, this approach risks tarring all landlords with the same brush and doesn’t fairly represent the thousands of reliable, responsible and professional landlords who provide high quality and affordable homes to millions of people throughout the UK.”

“My main piece of advice for landlords would be this: Tenants expect to be treated as paying customers and not as a nuisance or burden – and if you can keep this in mind, you will undoubtedly enjoy healthier and happier relationships with your renters.”

Tenants renting from private landlords, the key demographic that landlords should be concerned about, associated landlords with the word “slimy” at 20% - compared to 35% of those renting from housing associations and 16% of those renting from their local housing authority. This is worrying as private landlords, especially if they are self-managed, need to rely on selling themselves, as well as their properties, to guarantee their rental income.

With the eye-watering rents in London, it comes as no surprise that just over one third of (35% when excluding "don't know's") Londoners would call their landlords “wealthy”. In fact, Londoners had some of the worst perceptions of landlords in general, as 56% of Londoners think their landlords are “greedy”, the second highest percentage in the whole of Britain when broken down across all regions, beaten only by the East Midlands with 58%.

As the British public have made their opinions on landlords clear from this YouGov survey, the question remains, are landlords at risk of permanently damaging their reputations and becoming the new politicians? With the increasing financial pressure put on them from the government, and the increasing amount of negative media coverage resulting from a few rogue landlords, the majority of professional landlords are already feeling unfairly targeted.

In order to help the vast majority of good, honest, reliable and professional landlords across Britain, TheHouseShop.com have created a guide to help landlords prevent their relationship with their tenants from turning sour.