Do You REALLY Need To Increase Your Tenant’s Rent?

Agreed.

When you put the rent up, the tenant checks whats on the market to make sure what you are asking is fair.... Who knows what can happen.

At 43 and never having had a lap dance, being married for 15 years with two kids, living in a rural idle, and working from home, your tales of debauchery and ladies top bollocks remind me what a sheltered pussy I am!

Yeah. My previous landlord decided to increase the rent by £75 and for me it was outrageous with the service he gave and the condition of the house. Went straight to RightMove website and found a better flat nearby with double glazing window, better heater and was priced £100 cheaper than the rent I paid.

When I told my previous landlord that I won't extend my contract he reversed his decision to increase the rent but I have made the decision. Not so sure why he decided to increase the rent in the first place.

What to do with an accident prone tenant? (Blockage, damp, cooker, toilet, shower) Should the tenant insure himself against damage/breakages to the landlord's facilities?
~~~~~~~~~~

I'm only commenting so you don't get a nosebleed.

A sub-title could be "Let sleeping dogs lie."

Great post and very true.

I just put one of my flats back on the market after asking the latest tenant to move out so I could fix a damp issue. Alas I didn't use a professional company to do the check out and my husband missed a few things. Which means that the amount we deducted from the deposit did not cover the cost of repainting, buying new curtains, bedding, etc. So yes, a good tenant (and a professional check out company) can be worth quite a lot of money.

It's an interesting point now that tenancies are getting longer.

So at what point would you put the rent up, if ever?

Assuming this situation remains constant, some very rough figures;

In 2 years time you will be losing £3500 pa.
In 4 years £5000 pa.
In 8 years £9000 pa.
In 10 years £11000 pa or £110k a year for every 10 properties owned.

I've never had tenants for more than two years and I've never put rent up unless there was a change of tenants; I find that the time and effort it takes to find new tenants plus the cost of prepping the property to take it back to pristine, makes sticking to the same tenants without a rent increase quite appealing.

To me rent is not just what goes into your bank account each month: it's the common sense of tenants who don't ring you up to fix a light fixture when it was the light bulb, who don't live like pigs and let grime grow thick on floors and stoves, who don't slam cupboard doors and drawers so hard you have to replace them, etc. The time and money these tenants save you is part of what I think of as 'rent.' What's the point in getting more money if you have to spend more time and said money on fixing stuff?

Why, thank you ;-)

After not making any increases for 4 years and the fact the cost of EVERYTHING has gone up all around us I have made some very minimal rent increases to some tenants recently.

A whopping £5 a month!

I wanted to increase to make a point that everything has gone up and to educate the tenant that a rent rise can happen.

A good tenant in a good property with a good landlord should accept a fair increase now and again.

However I am definitely mostly in the let sleeping dogs lie camp and slightly panicked when asking for this £5 increase!

I always look at rent comparables when a property comes empty and make sure it looks the part for the price. That is defo the time to try for an increase.

A tenanted property at £450 is worth a lot more than an empty property at £500!

Thanks The Landlord, another awesome blog :)

I have a hot meal ready for me every night, as I have to cook it!

This week's top nosh Steak Mushroom and Red Wine Pie with Jackets and Veg, not the sort of Pie you like I bet!

Oh top tip, don't peel off the scabs...

On another note, I saw Bob Crows family have advertised that they do not want flowers at the funeral, they would like donations to charity and two extra days holiday at Christmas.......

After 2 years I increased the rent by £50 pcm.
I sent a copy of the zoopla assessment on rents for the property.
They objected; but I stated they could keep the existing rent if they gave me notice to quit.
they stayed.
Mind you I don't make anything out of the increase as it just gets spent on little jobs the tenants find need doing.
I'm a very diligent LL; which is probably why i don't make any money!!!

Maybe we shoudl start asking that all new tenants report any 'issues' within the first week of renting. Anything they don't spot is obviously too irrelevant to require fixing ;-)

I always price my houses at a tenner below the market average then guarantee fixed rent for three years. This tends to attract tenants who see the house as a long term prospect and as a result treat it well enough that I'm not tempted to give them the boot. My tenants have been in since I started letting in 2011 and shown no signs of wanting to vacate.
The agency who handles two of my properties like it as well as it makes my homes an easy sell.

I agree if there cool keep em sweet, maybe even a crimbo card.

Thank you The Landlord.
A good point, and the way you put it made me laugh more than I have in ages. Brill!
Against which the following will sound oh so boring...
The only (£few tens, but more than Charlotte's) rent increase I have made mid-tenancy is when tenant wanted several improvements and said she'd been there for 5 years (mostly before I took responsibility for that place).
I thought 5 years on the same rent: has there been any inflation in that time? I think: YES.
So she got a brand new kitchen; it needed some improvement, is v. small and was done reasonably by a small local company who mainly do kitchen refurbs./facelifts (a good tip? at least worth getting a quote) so only a few £k. And got some internal and external lighting improvements. Also some free insulation while I was 'at it', courtesy of British Gas.
So the rent was put up, partly to reflect the cost of improvements divided by the number of years they might last, and taking into account market rents in the area. Really, I'm not that precise.
The main reason was to impress that improvements will result in rent increases.
Now I get repair requests, not 'palace for pennies' aspirations. If it was ok to take on in the first place why move in and expect more when more wasn't promised/discussed. Do I look rich?
Keep blogging The Landlord. The website is great, and I've a lot more of it to read.
If I was lucky enough to have rentals in the property-inflated area where I live, with an £175pcm increase in rental value over 3 years like The Landlord, and a tenant who was happy to pay the going rate 3 years years ago (so would presumably be happy to do the same now); I would be tempted to raise the rent to at least half of the difference. Which would raise money for more of The Landlord's 'fun' activities while still giving the good tenant good value - so he shouldn't look elsewhere.
This eminently sensible 'advice' can of course be recompensed in gifting (so not tax-offsetting) lapdance/s, depending on £monthly increase in value c.f. per dance cost
:-))
And I'm not aiming for the prize for the longest comment - honest. And certainly not for quality of humour!
[Bloody Yank spellchecker.]

I totally agree landlord. I have a tenant who has completely re-landscaped the garden. I reckon she has added £2k to the value of my house. She only bothers me when something is important. Why would I increase the rent?
I am aware that she is now paying about £50 a month below market value, but a good tenant is worth it.

Just a minor point; do check the tenancy agreement before increasing the rent. There may be a term that limits how often and how much you can increase the rent by.

I hadn't thought about the 'carrot' of fixing the rent upfront, even though, if tenants stay, I tend to leave the rent alone. Will definitely do that in the future. Thanks for the idea/tip.

I judge each tenant on a case by case, house by house basis. On some i have just increased rent to just below market rate but fixed for 3 years on a 3 year tenancy, also giving them the option to buy at price agreed now. On others where i purchased off another landlord I have found that rents had not been increased for 8 & 11 years! This is very dangerous because the tenants get used to paying way below market rents and then find it difficult to accept an increase. (have increased rent but also carried out works like new bathroom) I would not go more than 3 years without increasing rent to within 5% of market value as it makes it hard for all stakeholders, better to be tough every 3 years than build a problem later. Upon a tenant leaving I always refurb and put rent at local rate minus 5%. As always one rule does not work for all occasions. I am also looking at putting stepped rates into contracts, so an initial 12 month term at say £550pcm, then I will NOT issue a new contract but agree to allow a period tenancy to continue at £560 for month 13 to 24, then £570pcm for months 25 to 36. THIS IS LESS THAN 2% pa but sets out rent at beginning and covers for small increases. By not issuing new contracts I also do not have paperwork to do!

I love increasing rent and do it at any possible opportunity ie renewal of tenancy or serving of break clause

By doing this not only can I send my kids to private school and have 3 holidays a year but Bank lets me borrow more money to buy more properties

I keep the properties in good order and the properties are in great locations so very rarely do I not succeed

Remember guys if rents fell these guys would seize any opp to fuck your arse

5% Below market rental when you sign them up (at 5% below you get LOTS of applicants and can choose the best). Annual rental increase to cover rent inflation so my rents are always 5% below anyone elses for the same type of accomodation.

Of course PRS LL are in the game to make as much money as they can; otherwise they wouldn't bother being a LL!!
LL all have their own different take on how they manage such rent increases or not as the case maybe.
Tenants who always complain about rent levels never seem to leave and buy their own properties and should therefore expect a LL to charge the most he can achieve.
Most LL do NOT charge the maximum rents.
It is always a fine balancing act between tenant retention and voids if a tenant vacates.
LL have to get their offer right or the tenants won't come or they will leave!!

While letting sleeping dogs lie and playing it by ear all sound good, I prefer to work to an annual plan. Like, each year I know that I must schedule a GSC and, each year, I do other things, like consider a rent increase that is tied to an easily justifiable measure, like CPI from the ONS. I think my Tenants, even long term ones, prefer to have a small annual increase that is justified, than a larger, more unpalatable, one every few years.

I don't, however, check what other properties of a similar type are going for on property portals, because I don't know if that's what is being achieved. I would not feel comfortable justifying a rent increase to a Tenant by pointing out what they *might* pay for various other properties they can see on, for example, RightMove.

I think it's good Landlording practice to regularly increase the rent in small, justifiable, amounts to avoid the Tenants feeling like they've been hit unfairly hard (even if they've had several years of no rent increases) and I also think it is good management of an asset.

I have mostly studios, so most people only want a six-month tenancy while they figure out whether they are (a) going to stay in this new town they have been dragged to for the only job they could find (b) going to back to him/her/it/them what they left in a huff because they absolutely could not stand it a moment longer (c) save up enough money for the train fare back to the parents' house.

Which means I can put the rent up whenever I like. I just do it between tenants/adverts.

Hi, I have lived in my flat for 3 years. Last year, I had a 7% rent increase. Last week, my landlord asked to increase my rent by £175 a month. It is a 19% increase. I am already finding the rent expensive as I live alone. He has given me 6 weeks notice. I am so stressed as I know he is doing that because renting in my area has gone up.. Which means I will not find another flat I can afford. I feel I am being thrown out and having huge stress and anxiety about it all.
Moreover, he left huge damp stains on my living room walls since February which was supposed to be fixed.
He didn't secure my rent after the first year, which I am told is illegal ( and he is asking me to pay £40 to have it re-secured if I stay).
I need to get some advice please as I feel helpless on my own. Thank you in advance for any help.

Firstly you should accept that a LL can request any rent increase he likes.
It DOESN'T matter that your personal financial situation can no longer afford such rent.
You will have to move to a cheaper property.
Your affordability of revised upward rent is irrelevant!
Potentially if you have a spare room you could ask the LL if you could take in a lodger.
I ALWAYS offer my tenants this facility and I always increase my rents progressively.
I do NOT increase rents because a tenant has taken in a lodger.
The rent is the same for 1 or 2 tenants.
If your LL took a deposit from you and has NOT protected the deposit then he CANNOT enforce a S 21 to evict you.
He must FIRST return the deposit to you before he can obtain a PO which he cannot do until he has served the S21 and it has run its full 2 month notice period.
You may also take the LL to court for failure to provide a DPC and PI and for which you may receive 3 times the rent plus the main rent amount.
For the LL to serve a rent increase on you he will need to use a S 13 .
You do NOT have to agree to such a proposed increase and may refer to the Rent Tribunal.
However even though the RT may reduce the rent the LL can increase to; the LL can still evict you if you refuse to pay the rent he wishes you to pay.
This he would do by the S21 process.
You have a choice of NOT paying anymore rent and waiting to be evicted; which will take about 1 year.
Plus you will be able to obtain compensation for the deposit issues; but of course the LL could take you to County Court for rent arrears and damage your credit rating and give you a negative reference.
It would seem the LL is wedded to the idea of increasing your rents.
I would suggest that you suggest to the LL that if the LL pays for all your moving costs to a new rental property then you won't pursue a deposit claim.
You continue to pay the existing rent whilst you look for alternative accommodation.
You will have to accept your domestic circumstances will have to change.
I would NOT wish to remain in a property which is damp and for which the LL has not addressed it.

I set out with the intention of having non-smoking, non-pet owning tenants. My tenants are cat and dog owning smokers! The seemed like a decent couple, who ask me could they have a dog a few months after moving in. They had a couple of cats already. I agreed as they have been good tenants. My property is well looked after, there are no problems with neighbours either. I don't hear a peep from them and they have paid their rent on time for over a year. I want to keep these tenants and will therefore not be increasing their rent.

All very well!
You have made a business decision that you are seemingly able to make.
I wonder if you would make a different decision were your rents insufficient to meet your increased costs caused by C24 etc!?
Many LL are being forced to uncreasecrents above the amounts they would normally increase by
Charging tax on mortgage debt interest is a major upset to the business model of a leveraged LL who trades in his own name
It is reckoned that about 25% of leveraged LL are sole traders
Most if them will have little alternative than to increase their rents massively to cope with the new taxes
If interest rates increased they would have to increase rents even more though if course this is very unlikely
Tenants will always have to pay for increased business costs
If they don't the LL will go out of business
If all the some trader leveraged LL were bankrupted tomorrow there would be massive negative effects on the housing market in general and certainly on the PRS
Therefore your nice tenants would have to pay increased rents or you will be out of business
Of course every sole trader LL has unique individual business circumstances
Your tenants should count themselves very fortunate that they seem to have a LL immune from the travails that are affecting most of the remaining some trader LL
Have you completed the spreadsheet on property118 to determine your viability
Many slie trader leveraged LL are ignorant as to the ramifications of the new Budget Taxes
Many believe that if they are currently a BRT that they are safe from becoming a HRT
They couldn't be more WRONG!!!
They urgently need to review their status through the prism of the new taxes
LL and tenants are in for a shock at how much costs and consequently rents are going to go up
LL are effectively going to become tax collectors for Govt
A Tenant Tax if you will!!
The only way currently to avoid legally these new C24 tax charges is to incorporate
This is not so easy for a wide variety of reasons
Which is why many leveraged some trader LL will either have to increase rents or go bankrupt
The solution for many of them will be to avoid bankruptcy by reducing leverage on their properties usually by selling properties
This will mean lots of evicted tenants with nowhere to rent as there will be hardly any new supply coming to market
So my advice to tenants is to ascertain from their LL if he is leveraged and whether he has worked out what rent increases might be necessary just to meet the costs of C24 etc
The last thing a tenant needs is for his potentially leveraged sole trader LL to not even be aware of C24!!
The tenant obviously wants to know his LL could survive C24, usually by a tent increase
A tenant can budget for this if he knows what it might be
Too few LL let alone tenants are even aware that this calculation urgently needs to be made

It is a personal choice for each landlord.

No it isn't a matter of personal choice
Did you not read my above post;?
Many LL will have no choice at all
They will need to increase rents or go bankrupt
Being taxed on losses is a bonkers concept
If you truly believe increasing rents is a matter of choice then you have absolutely no understanding of what the Budget taxes on the PRS mean.I suggest you educate yourself rapidly

Not everyone shares your views - did you not read all the posts above?

Let's qualify the comments
Very few sole trader leveraged LL will share your views
These are the ones subject to C24 which forces LL to increase rents by more than they would normally do
As indeed I am doing
I am not going to run my leveraged business model at a loss or suffer reduced net income
Therefore the tenant has to pay what is effectively a TENANT TAX!!!!
Very few LL are able to escape this iniquitous C24 tax and so they have little alternative than to increase rents
You will also find that those LL increase rents in line with sole trader leveraged LL
So all tenants will find their rents will be increasing
I have already seen LL selling up because of these new taxes and the tenants cannot find anywhere to rent in the locale
This will also force rents up
Scarcity of an asset will always cause the price to increase
The fatuous idea that LL won't increase rents unless they need to is bonkers
LL are in this game to make as much money as they can
Osborne has now cost LL some of the profit which will now have to paid for by the tenant
LL who don't increase rents are just plain stupid
Unless of course they consider they are part if the charitable housing sector, which is admirable
Most of us exist to make profit and to have that reduced by Osborne and his dopey taxes will he paid for by increased rents like me it or not
Tenants have little choice
In case you hadn't noticed the rental demand increases by about 350000 per year
One of the many supposed benefits of MASS UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????

Landlords who are leveraged to the point where this hurts too much are already sailing too close to wind. Reap what you sow. Raise the rent on the Tenants by all means, but if you go too far then other Landlords who don't have the same need to do that will look all the more attractive to prospective Tenants. I do raise the rent each year, anyway, but I have no special plans / emergency measures as this new legislation comes into force, I'll just keep on with modest and regular rises, ones that Tenants have never balked at (yet).

The taxes cannot be described as "dopey", I think. It's more money for the Treasury at the end of the day, from nowhere, so it has to be "clever" instead. He's targeted a population that don't act together and who the general public dislike - it's win-win. As you say, it's just down to where that new tax money really comes from at the end of the day... Landlords or Tenants. In reality I suspect it will be a mixture of both.

I doubt you have a need to get so worked-up if you have a plan to handle it anyway.

Irrespective of whether leveraged d LL are sailing close to the wind they will have to respond in a way to sustain their position
This will usually mean increasing rents.
Of course only about 25% of LL will be subject to C24; but they still house a significant percentage of tenants
It is irrelevant if LL who aren't in this position don't need to increase rents
Tenants won't be able to source another supply of LL who atebt leveraged and therefore they will have to pay the increased rents for renting from a leveraged LL
With continuing mass uncontrolled immigration there will be no lack of demand and consequently leveraged sole trader LL should have no difficulty in sourcing tenants who will heve to pay more rent than to a LL not subject to C24 etc
However whilst such LL could restrain their rent increases as they wouldn't be subject to the C24 tax pressures they are unlikely to stand idly by and watch leveraged LL increase rents albeit for tax paying purposes only
There it is my contention that ALL tenants will be affected by C24
Few LL will disclose their financial position to tenants and therefore as far as any tenant is concerned their LL will be subject to these new iniquitous taxes
They will then more readily accept the position the LL has been forced into
Rents were always going to be increasing because of mass uncontrolled immigration irrespective if C24
C24 has just made the situation worse
If there were significant amounts of property supply brought to market then that might cause a softening of market rents
It will take decades for that to occur if ever.
So in my investment timeline I can expect to see only ever increasing rents, which suits me just fine
Supply problems have also been exacerbated by the the additional SDLT issue along with lenders being required to be even more stringent in the amounts they are prepared to lend
Essentially this means that those LL who with say £60000 may have bought 2 properties they will only be able to afford 1
1 is still better than none but supply will be severely constrained because there will be insufficient mortgage credit available
None of these circumstances of course assists the poor old tenant who will he made poorer by having little alternative than to pay ever increasing rents
That is what a stupid RTB and mass uncontrolled immigration policy gives you
It is those who voted Labour that have caused the problems
Before the dopey Labour Govt allowed the EU A8 accession countries uncontrolled access to the UK there was no housing crisis
We also have an ever increasing birthrate amongst immigrant communities the pressure of which hasn't occurred amongst the traditional indigenous white British population
It must be obvious to anyone that if you have an increasing birth rate and open door immigration something has to give!?
For housing this means insufficient supply and consequently increasing rents on those properties that are let out
I just can't see this situation changing anytime soon
It will NEVER change if the UK votes to remain in the UK
It will just get considerably worse
Tenants will be paying the price whether they like it or not!
My rents will be increasing every year by about £50pcm
If thectenants don't life he it they can leave
I have more than enough demand from other prospective tenants

If your thinking is like your writing you have no chance. It's full of vitriol, sprinkled with what sounds like some casual racism and a political agenda trying to peek its way through. £50 per month per year increases might be absolutely fine, who knows? It all depends on the property and the market. A £50 increase is exactly what one of my properties increased by in 2016 (from £850 to £900), another by £100 (from £1,100), another by £10 (from £590). It's horses for courses. You seem to be doing it as a reaction, whereas I'm doing it because I manage my properties well. No Tenants moved because those increases were kinda expected and not exorbitant. I won't be going to them again claiming I need to increase the rent again because of new taxes, because I hope I've not been caught with my pants down and that's why I say your contention is wrong. Anyway, best of luck.

Err!!hardly vitriol or any casual racism
These are market realities whether you like it or not
Demographic realities are not racist they are simply realties
Your contentions just aren't realistic
The market will dictate
Demand affects everything especially unsatisfied demand
One has to consider where this demand is coming from which is affecting so many people
To describe the reality of this as racist is just bizarre
If non white British are the ones that are causing the exponential demand then that is it
Had they not been allowed access to residence in the UK then we wouldn't be facing the issues we currently do
It goes back as far as the Nationality Act in 1947
The EU has just exacerbated the circumstances even more
Obviously political choice have been made over the years and that is why we have the housing issues that are currently being experienced
We need to reduce immigration to about 15000 per year excluding genuine students
We need to stop immigrants from having so many children, they need to follow the white birthrate
2 children per family is more than enough
Immigrants tend to have far more than that and tend to rely on benefits
Hopefully this will result in a gradually declining UK population
This will mean less demand and less resultant housing pressures
Demographics no matter how comprised will exert pressures on the housing market
It is a fact that if you got rid of all the EU migrants from the EUA8 countries the housing market would be transformed
There would be an excess of housing supply enabling many to buy plus there would be millions of jobs made available to those currently unemployed BRITISH citizens
We would genuinely have BRITISH jobs for BRITISH workers
EU migrants have been of no net benefit to the UK
If that means many LL have insufficient tenants then so be it
They can sell up to FTB
A smaller PRS would benefit many
We need to massively depopulate the UK
Getting rid of immigrants is a first step
Then we need to adopt an Australian type immigration points system, so that we have the immigrants we need and not these that ate just foisted on us
But for any of this we need to leave the EU
I don't expect this to occur which is why I know I can carry on increasing my rents
Great for me, not so good for the rest of the UK
Plus my rents will be more than usual as I am subject to C24 with no way of escaping it
My tenants will be the ones paying for the ridiculous C24 taxes
With swarms of migrants flooding to the UK every year I know there is no shortage of demand especially in the South where my properties are
Tenants would be wise to factor in a rent increase of £50 pcm for the coming years
From a LL perspective I think UNCONTROLLED MASS IMMIGRATION is great news
It means for me I have a never ending supply of tenants forced to pay the rents I require
So exponential tenant demand is great news and it is highly unlikely that this situation will be changing anytime soon
Of course there are plenty of affordable properties but FTB don't want to live in those properties
Most of those are far away from desired locations
Well that is what will have to occur and then commuting will be required
That is what everyone has had to do for the past 100 years
There is no right to live where you want
Affordability is the determining factor for tenants and FTB alike
There can NEVER be sufficient supply with open borders
To ignore that simple reality is to show how naive one maybe
LL in the South will have no problems in increasing rents
People still desire to live there no matter the expense
So whilst some tenants will surrender tenancies because of alleged affordability issues there will ALWAYS be other tenants prepared to pay the asking rents
This has always been the case, but even more so now with the massive unfulfilled demand
In the South LL experience very few voids
They can easily increase their rents with plenty of takers
Something that existing tenants should be aware of
There are plenty of replacement tenants waiting in the wings
It only takes a stroppy tenant to refuse paying increased rents and he will be given his marching orders
Osborne's dopey taxes will just cause less rental properties to be available which will means rents being increased
It is how a market operates!!
For LL who take on HB tenants their business model will be coming to an end
HB is insufficient to support their business models as HB is being constrained
Therefore better tenants not reliant on HB will be the desired by former HB LL
This will enable them to increase rents easily whilst retaining existing tenants
The costs for tenants to move is prohibitive
Better therefore from the tenant perspective to remain with a LL even though paying increased rents
Down South the LL is in charge
More tenants than there is supply gives opportunity for LL to increase rents

Nope, I can't read all that. Try to be concise.

Eh a few line and you struggle to read it
Do you have learning difficulties, if you do then fairplay
If you don't then my post is very simple to understand
It tells you everything you need to know as why LL will increase rents whether they need to or not
I would question how do you determine want is need
As you should know running a business is not just about day to day costs
You have to build in revenue increases to cope with costs, some unexpected
The classic one being boiler replacement costs
Each property has to be a self sustaining business unit
So rents have to include future deductions for future costs
Not sure what a reasonable percentage of net rental income that should be
For LL subject to C24 it makes the costing even more onerous as they could be paying tax on losses
A truly bonkers situation
If you are a LL that doesn't have the average 75% LTV mortgage and is a sole trader then this thread doesn't really apply to you
You seem to believe that LL with that LTV are over leveraged!
A truly bonkers perception
Most homebuyers are far more leveraged than that and yet Osborne doesn't seem minded to tax their mortgage interest as income
Funny that!!!
You know to level the playing field for poorer FTB!!!!!
C24 is the most bonkers tax policy to come out in over 250 years
Hopefully it will following a JR be consigned to the dustbin of history along with dopey Osborne
Controlling BTL mortgage credit is a far fairer methodology of controlling the PRS market
Very few LL would object
It would just be the lending criteria
Nobody has the right to be a LL and if you don't have sufficient deposit or rental income projections to satisfy a mortgage valuer then tough you won't become a LL!!!
If overnight Osborne stayed that V24 and the stupid extra SDLT was to be abished but that from now on ALL BTL mortgages would only be allowed at 150% LTV you would see an almost cessation of BTL busness
As a LL I would find that annoying, but it would be something I just have to accept
I would need a far larger deposit to invest in another property so I probably wouldn't bother
That will leave the field clear for FTB
Trouble is with MMR they won't be able to afford property as well!!!
So where will all the new tenants live!?
The facts ate if you ate not increasing your rents in a ever burgeoning market you are not managing your business well
Your aim as a LL should always be to maximise profits
If you don't then why bother with all the hassle!!??
Most LL ate in this game to make as much money as they can as quickly as they can
The market presents great opportunity to facitaye that
You'd be bonkers not to take advantage of what the market allows

You spin around too fast, first you're representing this as some big headache and saying Landlords will be forced to raise rents, now you seem to be presenting it as an opportunity we should take advantage of... make your mind up. I, for one, have learned nothing from your comments, I will continue as-was, as-is.

Far better to have a small increase each year in line with the contract to avoid needing big rises in future. Everything else is going up, including maintenance and insurance, so you need to get the balance right.

It completely depends on personal situation.

We have had a tenant for five years now paying around 20% below market. But, one I factor in that I don't pay a letting agent and the tax is slightly lower, the actual gap in net income is marginal (maybe £100 pcm) Vs potential hassle of finding new tenants and void periods.

But like I said, it really is each to their own.