Cornwall’s not-for-profit estate agents calls for private landlords to help local people

imove Cornwall, the UK’s first not-for-profit estate agents has called for private sector landlords to assist local people with affordable, good quality private rented accommodation.

The current recession is clearly having an impact on the housing market and is placing increasing numbers of people at risk of homelessness, including people who previously would not have been considered vulnerable, according to Cornwall Council’s Homelessness Strategy.

The low-wage economy in Cornwall, seasonal nature of many dominant employment sectors, and low savings levels among average-low income households, place many people at increased risk of homelessness due to financial difficulty, says the report and in spite of recent improvements, Cornwall still lags behind the South West and the rest of the UK in terms of earnings, with average annual earnings 16.4% lower in Cornwall than the rest of the UK.

The geographical remoteness, increasing and ageing population and low wage economy in Cornwall combined with the current problems facing the national economy have led to an increase in demand for affordable accommodation, particularly in the social rented sector.

The cost of buying or renting property in the private sector has remained consistently high across Cornwall over the last few years, with affordability rates across the county in excess of 10:1.  Social housing forms only 12% of the housing stock in Cornwall, compared to 16% regionally and 23% nationally.

“It’s no surprise that many local people, particularly the young, elderly and vulnerable in our community cannot afford private rented properties in their local towns or villages” says David Gilmore from imove Cornwall.

“We would ask private landlords, who have properties to let in Cornwall and who have relatively low mortgage commitments on these properties to lower their rents to make their properties more affordable to local people.  It is a fact that if landlords have buy-to-let properties and want long-term tenants, the best way to achieve this is renting to local people, who are more likely to remain in the property long term”

“It is difficult to strike a balance between landlords who want maximum return for their properties and local tenants who need more affordable rents” says Gilmore.  “However one solution is to agree a program of home improvements between both parties.  This can be very successful.  Quite simply the tenant agrees to remain in the property for a number of years and furthermore agrees, for instance, to redecorate the property over that time.  In return the landlord agrees to lower the rent”

“This means that a local person can afford the rent and over the term of the tenancy can make some improvements to the property and the landlord quite clearly benefits by having a local person living in the property who is going to maintain and make some improvements.  Having a long-term tenant also reduces the cost of void periods and having to make improvements between tenancies”

“This is just one suggestion to improve the situation, but with some clever, out-of-the-box thinking, there are many ways private landlords and local tenants can agree a rent that serves both parties best interests”.

www.imovecornwall.org