Landlord groups continue to have pulling power despite a backdrop of smaller players quitting the market, insists the founder of GB Landlords.

Bruce Haagensen launched the North East Landlords consortium of businesses in 2018 to bring the private landlord community together through regular property education events, and rebranded as GB Landlords (GBL) last year, holding its first London landlord event.

“Our membership is growing all around the country,” he tells LandlordZONE.

“The landlords still out there are rapidly realising they can’t just soldier on as usual – they need to keep abreast of what’s happening – and our association can help.”

Property event

The group is holding its third day-long property event later this year in Newcastle which last year drew about 200 delegates and more than 40 trade stands.

The Property Redress Scheme’s Sean Hooker and Landlord Action’s Paul Shamplina are lined up as speakers, along with Suzanne Smith from the Independent Landlord, and Gary Trent, private rented sector stakeholder lead at the Valuation Office Agency. There will also be a speaker from Lloyds Mortgages’ head office, and the group is working on securing others.

“I try to get speakers who would not normally be heard in the region,” says Haagensen. “We’ll be talking about the Renters’ Rights Bill and how a lot of smaller landlords seem to be talking about selling up. My concern is that we’ll be left with bigger players who in a lot of cases are similar to social providers and are more interested in the bottom-line profits than the welfare of tenants and quality of accommodation.”

He adds that investors have previously travelled from all over the country and even overseas to attend its events. “This just shows the pulling power GB Landlords is generating in its support and education of those landlords who are hanging on in there.”

Sign up here for the event, which is on 27th November at the Britannia Airport Hotel.

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