MKM Housing

  Here's a statistic that should worry anyone who rents: research this year found that most tenants are unaware of the Renters' Rights Act — the biggest overhaul of renting in England for a generation, and one that is now fully in force. That means millions of people are still renting as if the old rules apply. Still afraid of revenge eviction if they complain about mould. Still assuming the landlord can put the rent up whenever they like. Still thinking a "no DSS" advert is just how things are. None of that is true anymore. Here's what actually changed — and what it means for you. 1. You can no longer be evicted for no reason Section 21 — the "no-fault" eviction notice that let landlords end a tenancy without giving any reason — has been abolished. A landlord who wants possession now needs a legal ground: serious rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, selling the property, or moving in themselves, each with proper notice periods and evidence. Th...

  For the b est part of a decade, the story told about buy-to-let has been a funeral. Tax relief cuts. Stamp duty surcharges. Licensing. The Renters' Rights Act. Every year, another think-piece declares the private landlord extinct. Then the actual data arrives. According to UK Finance, landlords took out 58,272 new buy-to-let loans worth £10.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone — higher than the same period a year earlier, despite borrowing costs remaining above their historic lows. Even more telling: some of the country's wealthiest investors have been publicly moving into the private rental sector this year, not out of it. Somebody forgot to tell the money that buy-to-let is dead. Here's what's actually driving the comeback — and where it's heading. The maths started working again Three things shifted at once. Purchase prices softened — this June saw the largest monthly asking-price drop for fourteen years, giving buyers real negotiating room. ...

  For years, the Renters' Rights Act was something landlords talked about in the future tense. Something coming. Something to worry about later. Later has arrived. The Act now frames every letting in England, and 2026 is the year its requirements stopped being theoretical. If you're still letting property the way you did in 2023, parts of what you're doing are now non-compliant — and the penalties for getting it wrong have real teeth. Here's what's actually changed, in plain English, and what to do about it. Section 21 is gone — and that changes how you think about tenants The headline change is the abolition of Section 21 "no-fault" evictions. You can no longer end a tenancy simply because you want the property back with no reason given. Possession now runs through strengthened Section 8 grounds — rent arrears, antisocial behaviour, selling the property, moving in yourself — each with its own notice periods and evidence requirements. What this m...

  Ask a tenant and they'll tell you rents are still going up. Ask a landlord and they'll tell you the boom is over. The strange thing about 2026 is that both are right — and the details matter a great deal depending on which side of the tenancy you're on. Here's what the numbers actually say this summer, and what they mean in practice. The headline: growth is cooling, not stopping According to the Office for National Statistics, the average UK private rent rose 3.3% in the year to June 2026, reaching £1,388 a month — a growth rate that has held steady for several months. Industry indices tell a similar story: HomeLet's July figures put the average new tenancy at £1,369, up around 4.3% on a year earlier, while Zoopla's tracking of new lets suggests growth nearer 2%. Compare that with the 8–10% annual increases of the post-pandemic surge and the direction is unmistakable. The market hasn't crashed — it has hit what analysts are calling an affordability...

  Something quietly remarkable happened in the housing market this summer, and it barely made the front pages: average asking prices fell by more than £2,000 in June — the largest drop for that month in fourteen years. At the same time, mortgage rates have continued to edge down, and research shows the salary needed to buy an average home has actually fallen in most UK regions over the past year. Put those three facts together and you get a question a lot of people are typing into Google right now: is this finally a buyer's market? The honest answer: partially, in places, for prepared buyers. Here's the fuller picture. Why prices are softening This isn't a crash — transactions are happening, lenders are lending, and well-priced homes still sell. What's changed is choice . The supply of homes for sale is at its healthiest level in years, which means buyers can compare, negotiate and walk away. Sellers who price ambitiously are sitting on the market; sellers wh...

  There's been a lot of noise about the Renters' Rights Bill. Some of it useful. Some of it alarmist. Some of it hopelessly out of date. Let's cut through it. The Renters' Rights Bill has now received Royal Assent and is being implemented across England. It's the most significant change to private rented sector legislation in a generation. If you're a landlord in Birmingham — whether you hold one property or forty — this affects you. Here's what you actually need to know. Background: Why Did This Bill Come About? The private rented sector has grown enormously since the 1990s. In Birmingham, approximately 23% of households now live in the private rented sector — one of the highest proportions of any major UK city. During that growth period, the legislative framework for renters' rights barely changed. The Housing Act 1988 — which introduced the Assured Shorthold Tenancy — gave landlords significant power, including the much-discussed Sectio...