London landlords risk costlier voids by inflating rents ahead of the Renters’ Rights Bill

A higher asking rent only helps if the market accepts it. In London, landlords trying to price in the Renters’ Rights Bill now may end up with fewer enquiries, longer voids and a paper trail that is hard to defend later.

Reports cited by Landlord Today, based on analysis from Hello Neighbour, suggest some landlords are listing at higher initial rents while enquiry levels soften. That does not prove a uniform London-wide trend: no borough-by-borough dataset has been published, and the Bill is still proposed legislation rather than law in force. But the commercial and compliance risks are already clear enough.

The key point: the asking rent matters more if bidding is curtailed

The Renters’ Rights Bill has been presented as banning landlords and agents from inviting, encouraging or accepting offers above the advertised rent. If that survives in the final Act, the familiar "offers over" playbook disappears.

That makes day-one pricing more important. If landlords also face a more structured route for increasing rent during the tenancy, there is less room to recover an optimistic valuation later. The rent on the listing has to stand up on its own.

Overpricing can wipe out the gain faster than landlords expect

That is where the arithmetic turns against overconfidence. If a flat advertised at £2,100 pcm is pushed to £2,250 pcm, the extra £150 a month looks attractive. But if that decision adds just three weeks of void time, much of the annual uplift has already gone.

In transparent sub-markets such as Wimbledon, Wandsworth, Southwark or parts of Tower Hamlets, tenants can compare near-identical stock in minutes across the portals. If a listing is out of line with local comparables, the penalty is usually immediate: lower enquiry volumes, fewer viewings and slower conversion.

Compliance risk starts with the advert

Pricing is only half the issue. The other half is how the property is marketed.

Phrases such as "offers over", "best offers invited" or any hint that a higher figure will secure the tenancy are exactly the kind of conduct the Bill is designed to stop. Even before the law changes, landlords should be removing that language from listings, valuation scripts, follow-up emails and staff messaging.

For portfolio landlords, this is a systems problem as much as a legal one. One negotiator using the wrong wording across multiple instructions creates a pattern of behaviour, not a one-off mistake.

Evidence beats instinct when setting rent

The safest asking rent is one you can evidence. That means keeping three to five current comparables, a small set of recently agreed lets where available, and notes on the factors that genuinely affect value: condition, size, furnishing, outside space, transport links, floor level, parking and whether bills are included.

That matters commercially now and may matter legally later. If a tenant challenges a rent increase or questions whether the initial price was inflated, a file of local evidence is far more persuasive than a generic claim that rents were rising.

London is not one market

A blanket instruction to "push rents up" is weak strategy because London does not move as one rental market. Some neighbourhoods can still absorb ambitious pricing for scarce, well-presented stock. Others are far more price-sensitive, especially where tenants have plenty of substitute options nearby.

Single-property landlords usually feel the pain through lost income on one empty home. Larger operators face a wider operational risk: inconsistent pricing decisions, inconsistent agent behaviour and avoidable compliance exposure across multiple branches or teams.

Three steps to take now

1. Test every advertised rent against current local comparables before the listing goes live.
2. Remove any wording that could be read as inviting bids above the listed rent.
3. Create a written process for rent reviews and in-tenancy increases so it can be updated quickly once the final legislation is settled.

Rentals & Sales can benchmark your asking rent against current Wimbledon and south-west London comparables and review your listing language before the new rules arrive.