A Welsh politician has sounded the alarm over new legislation which risks exacerbating the mass exodus of private landlords.

Conservative MS Peter Fox believes work to improve renters’ rights must go hand in hand with ensuring that landlords are not forced to leave the sector.

He told a debate on the Local Government and Housing Committee’s private rented sector report: “We have seen far too much policymaking here being directed against landlords, which has led to a mass exodus, thereby further driving up the competition.”

However, the Welsh government has already accepted the committee’s recommendation that private renters should be offered the last two months’ rent of their tenancy in certain circumstances, for instance where a landlord needs to sell or move back into their property.

Knock confidence

Fox has concerns that this will “knock the little confidence that remains in the private sector and will further contribute to the exodus of private landlords”. He added: “Fewer properties on the rental market means higher rents and a larger dependency on social housing that the government just doesn’t have.”

The report cited research from groups such as the NRLA which found that while 73% of member landlords reported an increase in tenant demand in the last quarter of 2022, four in ten planned to reduce the number of properties they let, while statistics from the Ministry of Justice confirm that Wales has seen elevated possession rates in the PRS over the last two years.

Other recommendations in the report include developing a property MOT for fitness for human habitation to use as part of the licensing regime. The committee also studied rent controls but did not make a recommendation about them, although the government has said it will monitor the situation in Scotland.

Landlords who took part in the committee’s focus groups agreed that the need to keep up with legislative changes was contributing to some landlords leaving the PRS.

Picture credit: Peter Fox/Welsh Conservatives.‍