Latest news with #landlords
New York Times
7 hours ago
- Business
- New York Times
Landlords Say They Don't Make Enough Money. Is That Really True?
Good morning. It's Friday. Today we'll look at why landlords say they're struggling, even though rents have gone up over time. We'll also look at an effort to make sure that everyone in New York is counted in the next census five years from now. It's a New York conundrum: Tenants complain that higher rents make the city impossible, while landlords complain that higher operating costs also make the city impossible. The Rent Guidelines Board, which has the power to raise rents for tenants in nearly a million rent‐stabilized units, could soon raise them on some of the city's most affordable apartments. The board voted 5 to 4 in April to support increases of between 1.75 and 4.75 percent on one-year leases and 4.75 and 7.75 percent on two-year leases. That vote was only preliminary. A final vote is scheduled for the end of the month. Still, some landlords say the financial picture is so bad that it reminds them of the 1970s, when owners abandoned thousands of buildings in low-income neighborhoods. I discussed the different perspectives with Mihir Zaveri, who covers housing in New York. Are landlords really hurting? They say they don't make enough money from rent to run their buildings, even though the Rent Guidelines Board has allowed rent increases of nearly 17 percent since 2014. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Life sciences struggles with oversupply in Q1, but upsides exist, experts say
This story was originally published on Facilities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Facilities Dive newsletter. After growing steadily throughout 2024, the U.S. life sciences real estate sector is experiencing turbulence in 2025 due to business uncertainty, which resulted in a sharp drop-off in demand for lab space during the first quarter, according to a report by JLL. Oversupply increased slightly year over year, with the more than 200 million square feet of U.S. lab market space needing 20 million to 25 million square feet of net absorption or supply reduction to return to market equilibrium, JLL says in its 2025 life sciences property report. 'Barring an unforeseen and substantial growth spurt of demand, the likeliest outcome of this period of oversupply is that well-built and well-located buildings will gain market share,' JLL says in the report, noting that landlords with scale and experience in the space are out-leasing their competition. 'Buildings without those aspects will face increased odds of distress in the next 12-24 months.' Although there are high-potential labs in need of updated operations and working capital to provide opportunities, the firm anticipates a supply shake-up, with many building owners unable to wait indefinitely for markets to recover, per the report. Today, smaller deals are driving market activity, making up 76% of deals closed in the first quarter, JLL said. The firm noted that reductions in tenant demand across the U.S. — influenced by macroeconomics, policy and funding uncertainties — suggest 'muted leasing volume growth' through 2025 as the sector grapples with 'a rocky decision-making environment.' JLL says sustained elevated supply has led to significant downward pressure on rents in key markets, namely Boston, the Bay Area and San Diego. Midsize markets —such as the greater Washington, D.C., area; New Jersey; and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina — occupy a more stable middle ground, showing 'decent availability levels and moderate rent changes,' JLL says in its report. There is relative resilience in the U.S. life sciences workforce, coupled with right-sizing and life sciences tenants using their space more efficiently, according to Ian Anderson, senior director of research for life sciences at CBRE. 'It's actually helping stem some of the negative effects of oversupply of life sciences real estate we've seen over the last few years,' Anderson said on a CBRE webinar. 'Though we have a while to go to address some of the oversupply in the life sciences real estate space, we are headed in the right direction … with tenants becoming more efficient with space,' Anderson said. JLL echoed this sentiment, noting that owners of struggling buildings experiencing elevated vacancy levels have started to change uses, leading to a reduction in built lab space that could help to alleviate oversupply. The firm says that it is tracking 3.2 million square feet in the process of changing uses, with half of this due to a pivot toward or lease to a new user type, with the other half due to capital challenges. One such potential user type is AI-focused tech firms, which are experiencing significant growth and are in need of space, according to CBRE. While the flight to quality has already begun to force office occupiers to consider less-than-prime buildings, the life sciences sector still has a large supply of high-end buildings available in top markets like San Francisco, according to Mary Hines, vice chair of life sciences in the San Francisco Bay Area at CBRE. 'What we saw during the pandemic was that developers spent a lot of money building out Class A life science buildings, a number of those are still available and in shell condition,' Hines said. 'The ones located in the right locations are going to need to catch the eye of these fast-growing AI companies that need space.' In addition, both life sciences and AI companies share a growing need for reliable power. 'Given the long lead times in the Bay Area for power, and how difficult it is to get if your building doesn't have it, that is creating a lot of demand for buildings that have power in place,' Hines said. 'So I do predict that we're going to likely see a lot of these Class A life science projects get leased by AI companies.' In addition, there are opportunities for tenants to relocate manufacturing functions — those that are normally pushed to tertiary or secondary markets due to the high cost of building — to be closer to headquarters, which are usually situated in the core markets. We've seen the softening of rents, and landlords have been more competitive in actually giving more tenant improvement dollars,' Hines said. 'So that creates the potential for these companies to locate their manufacturing nearby.' Recommended Reading AI set to spur changes in life sciences facility needs Sign in to access your portfolio
Telegraph
11 hours ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Landlords could be forced to forgo rent for a year under Labour reforms
Landlords could be forced to forgo rent for up to a year under Labour's rental reforms, experts have warned. A provision in Angela Rayner's Renters' Rights Bill, which is just one parliamentary vote away from becoming law, will stop landlords who put their homes on the market from relisting properties as rentals for up to a year if they fail to sell. With as many as a third of house sales falling through, it could leave thousands of potential rental properties locked out of the market. So-called 'Section 21' notices – also known as no-fault evictions – will be banned, and all tenancies will be on a rolling basis with no fixed end date. The Bill will stipulate that landlords can only repossess properties in four circumstances: if they're looking to sell, if they're looking to move in, or if there is redevelopment or if the property is seized by a mortgage lender. Other grounds include if tenants fail to pay the rent on time, although landlords will have to wait longer to evict for this reason. Chris Norris, chief policy officer for the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), said: 'Whilst we understand the Government wants to prevent abuse of the new tenancy systems, the country cannot afford to have homes standing empty for months on end. 'Around a third of property sales fall through before completion, mostly as a result of problems faced by the buyer. 'Given the scale of the housing crisis, it cannot be right that homes will be left empty for many months even when landlords are not to blame when a house sale fails to progress.' Nathan Emerson, chief executive of Propertymark, said that the new rules will mean that 'landlords must provide at least four months' notice to a tenant should they need or wish to sell their property. In addition, there will also be an initial 12 months 'protected interval' at the start of any tenancy where a landlord is prevented from evicting a tenant for the purpose of selling. Further to this, should a landlord choose to sell the property in question, they will be restricted from re-letting that property for a period of 12 months after evicting the tenant, should the property not sell'. Mr Emerson added: 'This may in some circumstance cause a degree of property vacancy, in an already pressurised situation where supply is greatly required.' Many of the reforms included in the Bill were first mooted by Michael Gove, the former Conservative housing secretary. But the original legislation said landlords would have to wait three months to relist a property that had been put on the market, rather than a year. Landlords have repeatedly warned that the more stringent rules will push them out of the market, eat into margins and make letting out properties unprofitable. In March, the number of UK properties available for rent hit an all-time low of just 284,000 – 23pc lower than during the pandemic, when the market dried up. Tax credits on mortgage interest for landlords were gradually slashed between 2017 and 2020, down from 40pc for higher-rate taxpayers to a flat rate of 20pc. Interest rates leapt, with buy-to-let mortgages at the sharper end of the increases – squeezing landlord profits even as rents rose. In Rachel Reeves's maiden Budget, an extra 5pc stamp duty surcharge was introduced on additional property purchases. Housing charities said that the delay of a year was necessary in order to stop the backdoor return of 'no-fault' evictions. Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: 'It's right the Government will outlaw arbitrary Section 21 evictions through the Renters' Rights Bill. This change can't come soon enough. 'If landlords are concerned about a property sitting vacant, they are free to sell with sitting tenants.' A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: 'Our landmark Renters' Rights Bill will bring long overdue fairness to the market by making sure it is unprofitable for landlords to evict a tenant and deprive them of their home, just so they can rent to new tenants at a higher price.'
Telegraph
a day ago
- Business
- Telegraph
In Starmer's Britain hard work is now a mug's game
A relaxation of red tape, perhaps? Or some easier rules on claiming expenses, or extra time to file their tax and VAT returns. There are lots of ways the Government, could help the self-employed and by extension the millions of people who rely on the services they provide, if it chose to. But no. Instead, it is pressing forward with a vastly complex scheme to make them file quarterly instead of annual tax returns, even though this will generate no extra revenue and involve a huge increase in complexity. It is now official: in Labour's Britain, working hard is a mug's game, and it is hardly surprising that so many people who work for themselves are quitting. In China, when they execute you, they make you pay for the bullet. In the UK, we have not quite gone that far with the self-employed, but perhaps it is only a matter of time. According to the latest analysis, the drive towards 'making tax digital' will cost landlords and freelancers an average of £480 a year. Under the scheme, from April 2026 they will have to report their taxes on a quarterly basis and, even worse, they will have to use third party software to report their earnings. Add up all the cost associated with the switch and there is unlikely to be any change out of £500. No one is claiming that it will raise any extra revenue, or that people working for themselves will have to pay more. It will just change the frequency of payment. It is as if a restaurant bought you the bill between each course and got you to fill in a form each time. It is completely pointless. There are, however, two far bigger problems with the whole woeful plan. First, the costs will have to be passed on to customers. It may have escaped the 'Rolls-Royce minds' at the Treasury and HMRC, but we all rely on the services of the self-employed. Perhaps we rent an apartment from one of them, or we get one over to fix a leaking pipe, or they help us with our pension planning, or deliver a burger late at night. If their costs go up, then they will ultimately have to pass that onto their clients in the same way that any other business has to. In turn, that will feed into inflation, and drive up prices for everyone. Next, it will force at least some people out of business. There is already alarming evidence that the self-employed are leaving the labour market. Self-assessed income tax receipts, the money collected from people working for themselves, came in well below the Office of Budget Responsibility's forecasts earlier this year. The only explanation was that the self-employed are working less or opting for early retirement (or if they are purely digital, moving to zero tax Dubai). If we push up their costs even higher, that trend is only going to accelerate. In reality, 'Making Tax Digital' is the perfect encapsulation of the modern British state in action. It is a completely pointless increase in red tape that costs lots of money, creates lots of hassle, and relies on software that probably won't work. Perhaps worst of all, it punishes the hardest working and often most productive section of the workforce. There are still ten months before the scheme comes into effect, leaving plenty of time for the Government to scrap it – and yet right now there is absolutely no sign it is even considering that.
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong landlords urged to register subdivided flats ahead of 2027 deadline
Hong Kong landlords of subdivided flats will be able to register their properties for rectification to official standards as early as March next year, with authorities planning to enforce a new law in 2027, the city's first legal regime to govern the notorious shoebox housing issue. The Housing Bureau submitted its regulatory proposals to the Legislative Council on Thursday. This paves the way to eradicate substandard housing, allowing properties that achieve official accreditation to remain on the rental market. Authorities have also introduced measures to prevent landlords from rectifying their properties at the last minute. The law was expected to help improve Hong Kong's image, a bureau spokesman said. 'The government is determined to press ahead with the regulation in a practical manner; the new law is not just cosmetic works,' he said. To make it work, the authorities had lengthened the grace period and allowed some proper windows facing a light well, he said.
