Renaming rental providers

What do you call someone who owns and rents out residential property? If you said “landlord”, it may soon be time to update your dictionary.

A poll by lender Mortgages for Business has found that 59% of landlords believe that the term “landlord” is now outdated. Only a third of respondents wanted to go on being called landlords, while 43% opted for “Small Housing Provider” instead.

According to the survey’s authors, attacks by the media and politicians have turned people off the term: almost three quarters of respondents said that they felt unfairly portrayed as “financial bogeymen”. Following the report, Mortgages for Business boss Gavin Richardson called on the government to do more to champion landlords.

The debate over landlords’ titles is about more than just escaping a negative reputation. In PayProp’s recent roundtable on rental industry transparency, Landlord Action founder Paul Shamplina pointed out that landlords’ activities have become increasingly professionalised. Today’s buy-to-let investors don’t only rent out property, they also deal with a complex and growing set of rental regulations. An updated job title could do a better job of reflecting that. ‍

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