Manifold is the benefit of Italian heritage. At the age of five you are Masterchef, having trailed Grandma around the kitchen for years. By your early teens, elegant clothes, shoes and accessories appear as if by magic.
In later life, you may enjoy an Amaro Averna while reflecting that you might be related to Da Vinci or Michelangelo (a DNA test indicates I may be related to both. And Cicero). All good until eighteen months ago when I started getting alarming reports from friends and family in Italy. The UK press was reporting the pandemic ripping through. A three-minute clip on the evening news. But the news I was getting was truly alarming. Critical patients treated in hospital corridors or in ambulances parked outside. The army drafted in to ship bodies from the north of Italy to the south because crematoria were overwhelmed. People were isolating at home, scared to go out. There were concerns about paying the rent or mortgage with no work. And while Britain, at the time was complacent about this new threat, it was obvious to me that trouble was in the post. That the nightmare visited upon my friends and family in Italy would soon wash up on the white cliffs of Dover. So, I turned for help to nobody’s favourite emergency service. Our insurance underwriters. I spoke to the chaps in pink shirts and arranged to insure all our landlords for rent guarantee protection. This means, if a tenant is unable to pay their rent, the landlord is compensated. I did this to protect both landlords and tenants. If a landlord has a void due to no fault of their own, they should be protected. Equally, if a tenant cannot work due to the Black Death, they should be protected. Today, Government has enacted legislation to protect tenants from eviction due to debt. It is estimated some 700,000 rental tenants will benefit from this protection. Mostly, people just going about their life until Covid dropped them off a cliff and into nightmare. It is upon us in the rental management sector to ensure tenants keep their homes and landlords receive the income to sustain their business. The rental sector is stepping up. While small landlords with a few properties in their pension pot are taking advantage of the hothouse market to cash their chips, the big boys are stepping in. Investment experts Knight Knox predict 27% of landlords are going to expand their portfolio over the coming twelve months. These are not ‘Mom & Pop’ landlords. Rather banks, hedge funds and investors with a long-term view. People who understand that investment in improving property will guarantee return over time. Good news for tenants who may expect a high standard and professionals there to support them. As managing agents, we are in a unique position. Both supplier (landlord) and customer (tenant) are our clients. While the landlord is the big boy, it is the tenant who generates revenue so best we nurture them. I will leave the last word to my Italian ancestor Cicero who said, “A man who has a garden and a library has everything he needs”.
