Landlords need to position themselves defensively

Keshav Thukaram, managing director of smartlandlord.co.uk, the property services website for landlords, commented on today's base rate cut: ‘Today's cut in base rates will come as some relief to those lucky landlords on tracker products facing the prospect of falling rents. However, most landlords on fixed rate deals and other products will not benefit in line.

Those needing to remortgage this year are still going to be in for a shock in the current mortgage market and with an increase in supply of rented property, rents could fall for some months. Landlords need to be looking at ways to cut costs, manage their portfolios and their tenants carefully and insure themselves against the rising issue of rental arrears.'