London agents are waking up to a new week with a freshly-installed London Mayor.
Labour’s Sadiq Khan was announced as London Mayor on Friday evening on a ticket of a capital for all Londoners.
But estate agents will be hoping he keeps to those promises despite his previously-held views on the sector.
Khan launched a Save Our High Streets campaign as Tooting MP in 2013, citing the number of agents in the borough. He said at the time: “As well as 53 betting shops, latest figures have revealed that we have over 150 estate agents in the borough. What happened to diversity on our high streets?
“This is exactly why I launched my Save Our High Street campaign, to call on the Government to give more power to local councils so they can control the type of shops that open and make sure we have a good variety of shops in our community.
“This isn’t about attacking estate agents, it is about giving local residents the shops we want.”
Meanwhile, property portal The House Shop warned that landlords and lettings agents could face yet more pressure from Khan’s policies.
He has advocated longer three-year tenancies as standard, landlord licensing schemes, naming and shaming rogue landlords, creating a London-wide not-for-profit letting agency and more controversially, a London Living Rent capped at one third of local tenants’ income.
Franki Chaffin-Edwards, spokesperson for The House Shop, said: “Landlords are already feeling targeted by the Conservative government, and we believe that many landlords are looking for reassurance that their interests are just as valuable as those of the tenants. We speak to private landlords every day and there is definitely a feeling of uncertainty about what the future holds for the market.”
Responding to the result, estate agent Andrew Reeves said: “There are several other ways of solving the capital’s ever-growing housing problem, but attacking private landlords is crazy and would be totally counter-productive.
“We need to bring the mortgage providers together with housing and Treasury ministers to discuss ways of incentivising landlords to offer their properties at lower rents. This could be done by subsidising buy-to-let mortgage interest rates, subject to special lending criteria requiring specific tenancy conditions.
“This would be for the benefit of the affordable homes sector of the housing market.”
Khan’s election masked a day of mixed fortunes for Labour as they lost ground in Scotland and didn’t gain as many seats as an opposition party usually would in England and Wales.
There is also a possibility that what happens in London is replicated in Labour councils elsewhere.
Already Labour-run Derby County Council had promised to create a new ‘trust a trader’ style landlord register if it retained control, which it did last week.
Too often, politicians break promises as readily as they smile for the camera. However, Mr Khan can do a lot for London by keeping his promises on just some of the following:
– 1-for-1 replacement of houses sold through Right-to-Buy
– 50pc of all new houses to be ‘affordable’
– Londoners get first refusal on new builds and current property
– Introduce part-buy-part-rent homes
– Introduction of rules to reduce empty properties in the capital
– 50,000 new homes a year
– Promote landlord licensing
There’s seven things in his manifesto. Will any of them come to fruition?
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You only had to see the glee on the faces of the exhibitors at ” A Place in the Sun” in Olympia last week, to realise what a great incentive this government has given to buying and investing in property overseas. Drive the money out of the capital and the UK. Great strategy. Well done George.
There is nothing to suggest that the new mayor will be any wiser in addressing property market dynamics than the current government are. And that is one seriously low benchmark.
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Trev where are you with your EU & BP Regs. Doesn’t sound like the mayor is complying with them.
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And what powers does Khan have to fulfill his election pledges. It is Government that makes the laws not the Mayor. Or am I missing something here?
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