Emma Parsons-Reid has been a landlord for 18 years but is planning to sell her two-bedroom house in Cardiff when the current tenant moves out. She bought the 80s property to live in in 2003, but has rented it out since 2007, when she moved in with her husband and became an accidental landlord.
“In Wales, you have to have a licence and sit an exam [to be a landlord]. It’s a real stress and I’m 58.”
Unlike in England, Find Rent Smart Wales requires landlords to complete training, obtain a licence every five years and pay to register any properties they are renting out. Emma sees the scheme as a “cash cow”, offering no tangible support or legal assistance, and warns landlords in England to expect something similar soon.
Her current tenant is a 70-year-old lady who lives on her own and has rented the house for five years. “She’s a good tenant. I’d like to get rid of it now, but I need to give six months’ notice [the minimum requirement in Wales]. I don’t think she’d give me any trouble, but I’ve had tenants that won’t leave and getting them out is horrendous.”
Emma feels that a good tenant is worth several hundreds of pounds so deliberately keeps the monthly rent at £750, below the market rate. “I could ask a lot more, but I don’t. I could easily put the rent up to £950 but I have a conscience, and I don’t want to be greedy.”
While Emma, a writer, uses a letting agent to find new tenants, she still feels as if it’s a gamble. Past renters have taken out a water bill in her name and then refused to pay it.
“I got three county court judgements against me until Welsh Water eventually wrote it off. The tenants were laughing and just tearing up the bills. They can pass all the [landlord] checks but still be b******s.”
Another tenant caused significant damage to the property, including starting small fires, after which Emma had to spend £10,000 on a new kitchen, bathroom, doors and floors.
“My heart sinks when the phone goes and it’s my tenant. I know she’s not ringing to say ‘hello.’ My husband does a lot of the repairs, but he has Grade 4 cancer and is ill so it’s going to cost me a lot more when he can’t do them.”
As well as the continuing maintenance, other costs include the re-wiring of smoke alarms and £550 on pigeon caging around the property’s solar panels.
“When you put solar panels up, there’s a gap and the pigeons love it. You have to flush them out and put netting around the sides to stop them – a chap came from London to do it.”
Emma estimates the property is worth around £185,000 and, while she only has a small mortgage of £3,500 left on the property, she only makes around £5,000 a year because of all the associated costs.
“My mortgage is small, but the tax relief is low, and expenditure is high on servicing, gas checks etc. Landlord insurance is quite high, and a lack of tradesmen mean the cost of repairs is high too.
“I make less than what I previously made on it, and I haven’t put the rent up. It is less profitable for landlords with bigger mortgages. Those with older properties will have to spend thousands to meet EPC regulations, plus, making safety changes under the new laws, new staircases, new safety-exiting windows, risk assessments for this and that. [There are] so many new reforms.”
As Emma’s tenant is on universal credit, she was able to install solar panels for free – usually the cost would be £5,000 to £10,000. This, along with the upgrades she made to the central heating system, mean the house has an EPC rating of B.
The current minimum EPC rating for Buy to Lets is E but this is set to change to C for new tenancies from 2028. She thinks these reforms and the others that make up the Renters’ Reform Bill are just the tip of the iceberg.
“Labour is going to introduce a rent cap. [It] wants housing associations and big businesses to be landlords – not people like me. [But] there’s a big gap between getting rid of us and houses being built by the housing associations; there will be millions of people with nowhere to go.”
Emma would dissuade younger people from going into buy to let. “It’s not something you want to get into now; you’ll die sooner of the stress than cream any money off at the other end. I’m in a landlord group and they just complain. All we get is taxed.”
However, renters would argue they are getting a poor deal with many seeing their monthly payments soar.
Average UK monthly private rents increased by 7.7 per cent, to £1,332, in the 12 months to March 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Average UK house prices also increased by 5.4 per cent, to £268,000, making it harder for renters to get on the property ladder.
But in terms of her future, when Emma sells the property, she plans to put what’s left after Capital Gains Tax and legal fees into a high interest savings account. “I will let the money sit comfortably there, making a bit of money without the stress.”
Nathan Reilly, Director at Twenty7tec, says many landlords, like Emma, are reevaluating their position: “With external pressures mounting, the next few months will be telling as to whether landlords stay the course, adapt their strategies – or begin to exit the market altogether.”
