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NLA survey asks ‘would you admit to being a landlord?’
A survey by the National Landlords Association (NLA) has revealed that one in five landlords are too embarrassed to admit renting out properties in the private rented sector.
The survey, based on a poll of almost 800 residential property investors, found that 21 per cent of landlords have been too embarrassed to admit it, while the figure in London is even higher at 24%.
Across the UK, more landlords in the East of England and the East Midlands said they were embarrassed to admit it compared to any other region (29 per cent and 28 per cent respectively).
At the other end of the scale, the English regions with the fewest embarrassed landlords were the South East and Yorkshire and Humber (18 per cent). Just 13 per cent of landlords in Scotland said they had been too embarrassed to admit it before – the lowest across the UK.
Richard Blanco, who lets property in London and the East Midlands, said:
“Before becoming a landlord I thought long and hard about it because I had always disliked landlords as a student due to a bad experience I had over my deposit.
“These days I’m more upfront about it, but I tell people I work in property instead, because I still assume people won’t like me if tell them what I do.
“I also say that I work for the National Landlords Association (NLA) and that we campaign to improve the private rented sector, which tends to go down a bit better“.
If the figures were to be extrapolated out across the UK, it indicates that around 400,000 of the UK’s 2 million landlords avoid telling people what they do.
Despite the bad press received by landlords, a NLA survey of almost 1,000 tenants found that over 80% were satisfied with their landlord and happy with the length of the tenancy they were offered.
Richard Lambert, Chief Executive Officer at the NLA, said:
“The number of people looking to invest in property is rising all the time yet the stigma attached to being a landlord never seems to diminish.
“It’s the minority of rogues and criminal landlords that make the headlines, and this has a negative impact on everyone else.
“The majority of landlords are hardworking individuals who put their own money into providing homes for others, and they should not be ashamed to say so“.
