Welcome to our weekly Newsround, where we bring you highlights of housing news and more.

Demand for rental properties increases

Rightmove states that the rental market is showing no signs of letting up and the number of enquiries per property is now 17. This is more than double than in 2019. but lower than last year which was 26 per property.

This has pushed rents up, whilst the number of available rental properties is still 20% below pre pandemic levels and 22% more tenants are looking to move more than in pre pandemic 2019.

Their research shows that around 120,000 more properties are needed to bring the rental price back to pre pandemic levels. Rightmove is calling for more support for landlords from the government to encourage investment and making properties more energy efficient. Tim Bannister of Rightmove said

With 17 enquiries for every available rental property, the market remains out of balance and difficult for tenants. We need landlord investment to increase stock and help achieve a healthier supply and demand balance in the market.

Advisory Board recommends to government agents training

Zoopla has written to the government with recommendations to raise the standards of letting agents. They have recommended:-

• To raise standards for those letting and managing rental properties
• Safeguard the quality of private rentals
• Help tenants to recognise that their rented property is safe

They hope do this via training and education, and setting minimum standards, which they say should then improve the quality of rental homes. This should be achieved by making training mandatory for all those who work in the PRS sector. At present anyone can let a property with no specific requirements, mandatory training should be across the board.

The board also supports the introduction of a private rented property database, which is currently in the Renters Rights Bill.

Nicola Thivessen, chair of Zoopla’s Lettings Advisory Board says

The Board remains keen to see the introduction of mandatory qualifications for those operating in the PRS and we encourage the government to review and prioritise this in future legislation, to ensure a minimum standard of knowledge and support for tenants.

Tribunal rules in favour of tenant over prohibited payment

A landlord has been ordered to pay back £800 holding deposit to a prospective tenant as she failed to disclose a clause in her tenancy agreement that stated ‘A guest is welcome and is charged £30 per night’.

The prospective tenant viewed the room and paid the holding deposit, he then found the clause and asked for it to be removed, which the landlord refused. There was an argument over how much of the holding deposit should be returned and the landlord falsely claimed that she had previously disclosed the guest charge during the viewing.

The tribunal ruled that because they had not entered into an agreement, the holding deposit was a prohibited payment under the Tenant Fees Act and was to repaid in full.

Chung v Notting Hill Genesis

This is a case that exemplifies the Court’s power to extend time limits. A social tenant applied to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal against her possession order. The application was out of time and she applied for extension.

This was refused as the delay was significant and her case was considered weak.

Snippets

City lauds highly unusual approach to ‘non-compliant’ landlords
Landlord’s appeal against huge rent repayment order fails
The real cost of making a property energy efficient
Half of ombudsman complaints from London residents
UK housing decarbonisation to accelerate by up to 13 times faster under Labour plans
What would the Monopoly board look like with modern house prices?

Newsround will be back next week.

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