RICS disagree with Miliband rent policy

The news will reinforce critics who say the policy will prove unsuccessful and only damage the property market, reducing the quality of properties and making landlords less likely to rent. Mr Miliband proposes making it mandatory for landlords to provide three year tenancies to stop rent rises forcing residents out of a home, but the Conservative party states it damaged the property markets of Venezuela and Vietnam when similar policies were introduced. Meanwhile, the Independent says Mr Miliband’s policy is not going to transform the British housing market, not because of a lack of ambition, but because of the difficulty of increasing the supply of housing fast enough to keep up with a growing economy. Elsewhere, Julia Unwin of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, writes in the Times that an overhaul of the private rented sector is long overdue, however, she says that it does not go nearly far enough to help to solve the UK’s housing crisis. Separately, Robin Ash, in the Times, looks at the new regulations for letting agents that have recently been passed into law.