Beyond Section 21: How Smart Landlords Will Thrive in the New Rental Market
In the public square, the debate about the UK's private rental market is almost always framed as a conflict. It's tenants versus landlords; fairness versus profit; rights versus security. This narrative is as emotionally charged as it is fundamentally flawed. It creates villains and victims, forcing a choice between two sides when, in reality, their long-term interests are inextricably linked.
The truth is, you cannot build a functioning housing system on a foundation of landlord insecurity. With nearly 20% of UK residents relying on landlords for their homes, a healthy rental market is a social necessity. But that market is only possible when good landlords feel financially secure enough to provide homes efficiently and sustainably.
Protecting the landlord is not the opposite of helping the tenant; it is the essential first step.
We are already seeing the consequences of getting this narrative wrong. Thousands of smaller landlords are selling up, citing rising costs and regulatory burdens. This shrinks the supply of diverse housing stock and ultimately worsens the housing crisis. Yet the irony is stark: many provisions in the Renters' Rights Act already exist in European markets where rental sectors thrive. The difference is not the regulations themselves, but the perceived risks in the absence of proper tools to manage them. Tomorrow's budget adds further uncertainty. Speculation abounds about potential tax increases or additional regulatory changes, creating a climate where landlords are making exit decisions based on fear rather than fact.
When a landlord's entire life savings are tied up in a property, their appetite for risk is understandably low. Faced with the removal of Section 21 and a legacy referencing system that offers little genuine insight, they are forced to make conservative choices. They default to the "safest" tenants on paper: those with perfect credit reports and traditional PAYE employment. This isn't born out of malice; it's a rational response to a high-stakes financial risk.
But what if we could fundamentally change that risk equation? What if we could provide a landlord with such a robust financial safety net that their entire decision-making calculus changes?
This is where the conversation must shift. When a landlord is comprehensively protected against the true financial risks of a tenancy (from rent arrears to property damage and maintenance emergencies), something remarkable happens. They no longer need to become amateur risk analysts, poring over credit reports and making subjective judgments about who seems "safe." Instead, they can focus on what they do best: providing homes.
Suddenly, the self-employed applicant with a fluctuating income but a strong cash-flow and rent payment history is not a risk, but an opportunity. The benefit recipient with flawless property care history is a viable tenant. The newcomer to the UK with no local credit history but verifiable overseas income can be welcomed, not rejected out of hand.
This is the market we are building at Husmus. We didn't create an insurance company to simply participate in the old system. We did it to create a new one.
Our mission is to replace landlord anxiety with financial certainty. Our AI-powered evaluation provides a more accurate, more nuanced, and more reliable picture of a tenant's ability and willingness to pay. And our insurance guarantee is our commitment to that assessment. We have skin in the game. We are so confident in our ability to get it right that we absorb the financial risk if we get it wrong. Our holistic security which protects the property itself as well as boiler and appliance breakdowns ensures landlords can also be responsive to maintenance needs without facing unpredictable costs.
This isn't about pitting one side against the other. It’s about creating a single, stable system where landlords can confidently offer comfortable homes and a wider range of tenants can fairly compete for them. A market where landlords are secure, supply is stable, and fewer people are left behind is not a radical idea. It’s just a better one. And it starts not by punishing landlords, but by protecting them.