Member Article

The L-word: Don’t call us “landlords”

The majority of the buy-to-let community say they would prefer not to be called “landlords” in the media, according to research from mortgage intermediary Mortgages For Business.

Some parts of the US media, including regional divisions of NBC, have reportedly stopped using the word “landlord” due to complaints from the buy-to-let community. When it came to the UK, a majority of those surveyed by Mortgages for Business (59 percent) said they wanted the British media to stop using the word “landlord”.

And when the specialist buy-to-let broker asked landlords if they thought the term was “dated”, 59 per cent agreed that it was.

When the the buy-to-let community was polled on their preferred name, 43 per cent said “Small Housing Providers”, 36 per cent said they would prefer to remain “Landlords”, and 21 per cent opted for other options - including “Rental Accommodation Provider” (7 per cent).

Gavin Richardson, managing director of Mortgages for Business said: “Sections of the media have vilified the buy-to-let community. The government has hammered them - think Theresa May’s 3 per cent Stamp Duty surcharge and other tax deterrents. It’s got to the point where the buy-to-let community doesn’t want to be associated with the term ‘landlord’ anymore. The term carries much more baggage than it once did. No wonder the community wants a rebrand.”

Additionally, almost three-quarters of those surveyed (73 per cent) told Mortgages for Business they felt “unfairly portrayed as this generation’s financial bogeyman”. Only 8 per cent felt that landlords were not “financial bogeymen” at all - while the remainder accepted that their notoriety might not be entirely unwarranted.

Gavin Richardson said: “The majority of landlords are paying 40 per cent tax on their rental income - plus stamp duty - which means the Government is profiting hugely from Generation Rent. And to what end? Hammering landlords over the last five years has done first-time buyers no favours - research from Nationwide suggests first-time buyers now need to save a huge 113 per cent of their annual salary for a typical home deposit of 20 per cent!

“What would happen if we took landlords out of the housing equation? The impact on the property market would be significant and almost entirely negative. It’s not as if the Government is pouring money into social housing - or making any progress on house building. Frankly, the Government should be championing landlords and lauding their contribution to the housing sector - landlords are bailing the Government out!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Raoul Duke .