A study has found that landlords in the UK lost £7,500 on average during the Covid-19 pandemic. Many agreed to give tenants a rent holiday during lockdown - those who offered rent reductions estimate it was around £6,500.
A third of landlords who reduced rents said that they did so proactively.
Yui Mok
28% of landlords surveyed for Shawbrook Bank said they gave their tenants a payment holiday. A further 18% offered a rent reduction for a certain period.
John Eastgate, managing director of property finance at Shawbrook Bank, said:
“This period has clearly underlined the critically important role that the private rental sector is playing, and will continue to play, in the UK housing market.”
More than a third of landlords who gave a form of rent reduction said that they proactively offered it to their tenant.
Concerns around furlough, job security and redundancy were all common reasons why a rent reduction or payment holiday was suggested.
Landlords with a portfolio of properties were more likely to have agreed a rent reduction than those with a single property to let. They were also more likely to say they had missed out on some income.
On average, rental payment holidays lasted for three months, compared to rent reductions which lasted four months, according to the research from among 1,000 landlords.
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