HouseMark has launched the first sector-wide
impact report as part of a three-month COVID-19 impact
analysis exercise, enabling landlords to contextualise the effects
of the coronavirus pandemic, forecast likely future
implications and take targeted action early to support
recovery.
The first report, that represents feedback from
landlords from across the UK, including 21 Local
Authorities, starts to show the immediate scale of the impact and
challenges for the housing sector. In March 2020, 1.3 million
(26%) tenants have been identified as vulnerable across
the UK and a further 800,000 tenancies (16%) are at
risk of falling into arrears due to financial insecurity linked to
the pandemic.
Compared to the same period in 2019, headline findings
include:
- Arrears levels have already increased by 5% representing
£33 million across the sector.
- Lettings sign-ups decreased by 11%. New
government guidance advising landlords to pause non-essential
allocation and transfer activity is likely to result in further
drops in April and May.
- HouseMark forecasts a longer-term impact on void loss from a
sector average of 0.94% of rent lost due to vacant
dwellings to an end of year figure to more than double that
(2.17%)
- The number of gas safety certificates renewed before
expiry dropped to 96.6%, compared to a more usual performance of
99.9% This relates to an additional 10,000 properties
without a valid gas safety certificate.
The report also outlines early impact on housing
staff:
- Staff sickness has increased by 65%, providing a real
challenge for some landlords with specialist services that cannot
easily be back-filled.
- Around 50% of landlords have furloughed staff
(representing 8.8% of all employees).
- More than half (52.3%) of employees are working remotely.
Around a third (31.6%) essential front-line workers
are still in contact with other staff and/or
residents.
The full analysis report is exclusively available to
participating organisations, however you can access the executive
summary here.
Landlords interested in participating in the April exercise can
find out more on HouseMark's website here or by contacting jonathan.cox@housemark.co.uk.
Please note, the exercise is available exclusively to HouseMark
members.