ABSTRACT
The chapter reviews current UK policy and the legal framework as well as the limitations and challenges for reform, including the barriers for institutional investment. It investigates the factors behind the persistence of rents and capital value inflation, quality issues and tenure insecurity in the UK Private Rented Sector (PRS) compared to Germany where rent and other controls seems to have worked reasonably well. The PRS is dominated by small investor landlords whose portfolios are small in size. 'Private landlordism' is seen as a 'sideline activity' in England and most landlords have had 'no training or qualifications in property management or related experience to draw upon'. The problems associated with the PRS that people have mentioned might, in part, be solved by institutional investors such as the pension funds and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) entering the market with the building of homes to let.
