longer possession delays<\/a> and tougher council enforcement during the second half of 2026.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s the view of Allison Thompson, the chief lettings officer at Leaders, who adds that the sector has continued to operate successfully despite repeated economic shocks and regulatory changes.<\/p>\n
She adds that the Renters\u2019 Rights Act, weaker economic growth and renewed inflation pressures are likely to shape the property market over the coming months.<\/p>\n
Ms Thompson said: \u201cOver the past couple of decades, we have experienced a worldwide recession; a pandemic; rocketing inflation; a huge number of lettings legal changes, mainly around licensing and safety standards \u2013 and both lettings and sales have proved resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n
More landlords being penalised<\/p>\n
Ms Thompson is also warning the UK\u2019s landlords that greater enforcement activity could be coming.<\/p>\n
She points to Greater Manchester, where landlord fines have recently risen by 43%.<\/p>\n
And with Andy Burnham returning to Westminster, the private rented sector could receive greater political attention.<\/p>\n
Ms Thompson said: \u201cWith the rise in the maximum level of fines and increased government funding for local council enforcement efforts, we will probably see more landlords being penalised for breaking the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longer possession times<\/p>\n
Leaders is also warning that possession cases may also take longer because contested claims must go through the courts.<\/p>\n
The median period between a possession claim and a landlord recovering the property reached 27 weeks in 2025, up from 24 weeks during the equivalent period in 2024.<\/p>\n
Although ministers have promised court reform and a more streamlined legal process, the firm says little progress has been made.<\/p>\n
Ms Thompson said: \u201cAlthough court reforms and streamlining of the legal process has been promised, very little has actually been done so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
BTL long term investment<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s landlords were achieving an average gross yield of 5.8% in March, according to figures from Zoopla.<\/p>\n
The North East recorded the highest regional average at 7.9%, while yields in some northern cities exceeded 8%.<\/p>\n
Rent growth has slowed as tenants reach the limits of affordability, although rents are expected to continue rising during the rest of the year.<\/p>\n
However, Leaders says the supply of available rental homes<\/a> remains almost 25% below pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\nMs Thompson said: \u201cThe market is cyclical, so there will always be peaks and troughs, and both buy to let and home ownership should be viewed as long-term investments.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12:01 AM, 20th July 2026, 11 hours ago Landlords could face longer possession delays and tougher council enforcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-534948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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