Outside of the changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), here are some of the changes that landlords need to be aware of in 2025:

A new Renters’ Rights Bill

The main changes in Renters’ Rights Billis banning Section 21 ‘no-fault’ evictions, This rule currently allows landlords to evict tenants with two months’ notice without reason, which has been criticised for its lack of security for renters.

The Bill also proposes longer notice periods for finding new homes, protection against rent increase ‘backdoor evictions,’ anti-discrimination measures, and improved housing standards.

Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act provisions come into effect

January 2025 also sees the abolition of the ‘two-year rule’. The rule requires leaseholders to wait two years after they purchase a property before they can extend their lease or buy their freehold.

Spring will bring the right to manage provisions. More leaseholders in mixed-use buildings will be able to take over management from their freeholders, and leaseholders making claims will, in most cases, no longer have to pay their freeholder’s costs.

Consultation of enfranchisement premiums in summer 2025. Matthew Pennycook has referred to “serious flaws” in the way in which the Leasehold and Freehold reform Act 2024 calculates the amount of money leaseholders will need to pay to buy or extend their leases that “would prevent certain provisions from operating as intended and that need to be rectified via primary legislation”.

Publication of draft Leasehold and Commonhold reform Bill

We will see progress in 2025 on the banning of new leasehold flats, in favour of making ‘commonhold’ the default tenure by 2030, the abolition of forfeiture and the tackling of ground rent. These rules will affect landlords who buy or own flats.

Commonhold is an alternative way of owning a flat which avoids the shortcomings of leasehold ownership.

There is no lease, and a commonhold association which all the unit holders belong to decides how to manage the property.

For larger blocks, the unit holder wouldn’t carry out the day-to-day management themselves but would instead appoint agents to manage it for them.

However, it would be the unit holders (rather than an external freeholder) who would control the appointment and management of those agents.

This is intended to be in place by the second half of 2025.

Potential regulation of property agents

Matthew Pennycook has announced in a written statement that they are “looking again at Lord Best’s 2019 report on regulating the property agent sector”.

They would consult on the regulation of property agents, which would include “as a minimum”, mandatory professional qualifications to “drive up the standard of their service”.

Get in touch with our team if you are concerned about the financial impact of any of the new regulations coming into force.