I’m a landlord with six homes – I’m hiking prices 30% due to new renter rights

A landlord who says he has frozen his tenants’ rents for more than five years says the Renters’ Rights Act has led him to advertise prices 31.8 per cent higher than they were a month ago.

James Buckley, 27, who owns six properties across Bath and Leeds, said he had previously absorbed rising costs because he viewed himself as “a custodian, not an extractor”.

Speaking to The i Paper, he said: “I held my rents flat since Covid. These are people’s homes, and stability matters more than squeezing an extra few pounds out each month.”

But he claims the recent Renters’ Rights Act – Labour’s flagship overhaul of the private rented sector – has changed his approach entirely.

The legislation, designed to strengthen tenant protections, abolished Section 21 no-fault evictions, introduced periodic tenancies, strengthened tenants’ rights to challenge rent increases.

Ministers said the reforms would create a fairer and more secure rental market for the 12.9 million private renters in England, according to the Office for National Statistics, helping tenants stay in their homes for longer and reducing unfair evictions.

But critics of the reforms argue some measures could have unintended consequences, particularly around pricing and supply, with landlords warning that tighter regulation could push more smaller investors out of the market.

Crucially for James, part of the legislation says  landlords must stick to no more than the advertised rent price – which he says makes it illogical to advertise a low price, because then if it’s far lower than market rate, nobody can bid even slightly more.

For his sitting tenants, he has been pushing up rents by up to 5 per cent.

But for new listings, when his current tenants have moved out, he’s going much higher.

“For one property where the tenant moved on, the new listing went out at 31.8 per cent above the previous rent. That figure isn’t greed, it’s mathematics,” he says.

“That’s the only way to discover market price under the new rules,” he says.

The result could be a sharp increase in advertised rents across the market, even if final agreed rents settle lower.

James says he has already stopped looking at buying additional properties and is now waiting to see how the market responds once the reforms have been fully implemented for a period of time.

James said that if he does sell, he “won’t be selling to a young family. I’ll most likely be selling to a corporate or institutional buyer”.

Some campaigners argued against approaches like the one James is taking.

Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “Homes are the foundations of our lives. But when we are forced to spend too much of our income on rent, it means children are going to school hungry or older renters who can’t afford to turn the heating on.”

He described a 30 per cent increase to an advertised cost as “massive”.

“Many renters are already paying far more than what we can afford, and although rent rises can now only happen once a year, landlords demanding a fortune are still putting tenants at risk of debt, poverty and homelessness. The new law barely increases landlord costs, and should not be used as an excuse to take even more from renters.”

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), average rents increased to £1,434 in England, £830 in Wales, and £1,022 in Scotland, in the 12 months to March 2026, continuing years of steep rental inflation driven by supply shortages and strong demand.

Supporters of the Renters’ Rights reforms argue the measures are necessary to tackle insecurity, poor housing conditions and soaring rents after years of weak regulation in the private rented sector.

Housing campaigners have long argued that tenants face unfair competition for homes, with bidding wars pricing many renters out of cities and towns across the country, while renters can also face sudden evictions despite paying rent on time.

But James believes the reforms misunderstand how rental markets actually operate, adding: “Underbidding is now the only mechanism for price discovery,” he argues.

Chris Norris, chief policy officer for the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “Fluctuations in rental prices reflect the increasing costs of providing quality accommodation and the scarcity of available homes in the private rented sector.

“Landlords’ costs have increased significantly, with many having to raise rents to ensure their businesses remain viable.”

المصدر: iNews