The Property Institute (TPI), the professional body for the residential property management sector, has published its agenda for change in a manifesto for the new Government – with a continued focus on policy change to protect people living in multi-occupancy buildings leveraging recent leasehold reform in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, and the Building Safety Act 2022.
In England, an estimated 3.5 million leasehold flats, representing 14% of all residential homes, are managed by residential property managers. TPI and its predecessors have long collaborated with the Government to ensure competent, safe, and ethical management of these often tall and complex buildings.
TPI, formed in 2022 from the merger of the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA) and the Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM), brings together over 50 years of experience and is committed to ensuring that the millions of residents of these ‘vertical villages’—regardless of tenure—live in safe, secure, and well-managed homes, have access to transparent information about their homes, and are served by competent, ethical, and regulated property managers.
In its manifesto, TPI calls on the incoming Government to take swift and decisive action in four core areas, each with specific asks, to improve both standards of service and the lives of residents in multi-occupancy buildings:
- Introduce regulation of managing agents – leaseholders and private tenants will all benefit from improved standards in the management of their buildings and communities, with legislation that establishes:
- An independent property regulator
- Mandatory property management qualifications to ensure professional competency.
- A mandatory code of practice outlining broad principles for property managers.
- Deliver transparency of information for leaseholders – ensuring they understand the implications of owning a leasehold property, by
- Providing the Government’s ‘How to Lease Guide’ before the purchase of a leasehold property.
- Offering clearer information on alternative ownership models and tenures available to prospective buyers.
- Increasing information available to leaseholders about service charges.
- Finish the job of fixing unsafe buildings – tackling the implementation issues and slow progress of the remediation programme and complex leaseholder protections regime, so that buildings are fully fixed, and residents can feel safe and protected from unnecessary costs.
- Enable blocks of flats to decarbonise to help achieve Net Zero – empowering leaseholders to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes, with support from a government strategy and grant funding options.
TPI Chief Executive, Andrew Bulmer said:
“Improving the lives of residents in multi-occupancy buildings must be high on the agenda of the next Government. The Property Institute is committed to working with Government to ensure the safe, ethical, and professional management of people’s homes and the communities they live in. In recent years, TPI has actively pursued positive change in the property management sector by working with parliamentarians and Department Officials on key legislation, including the Building Safety Act 2022 and more recently, the Leasehold & Freehold Reform Act 2024.
“Whilst these landmark Acts mark progress, TPI is clear that the next Government must act swiftly and decisively to protect leaseholders and raise standards. Our Manifesto is an agenda for change and our four core asks will drive progress in improving the lives of resident communities.”
Download The Property Institute’s 2024 Manifesto here
TPI’s Service Charge Index
Reflecting its own commitment to providing more information and greater transparency for leaseholders, TPI worked with its membership earlier this year to investigate the drivers behind rising service charge bills.
The TPI Service Charge Index, published in April 2024, revealed that the cumulative impact of a pandemic, energy price crisis and new regime requirements for building safety has led to soaring costs across all expenditure categories paid for through service charges.
Looking at 13, 754 homes across England and Wales, TPI found:
• Since 2019, service charges increased by 41%, only a 3% increase last year.
• In 2024, the average service charge per estate was £467, 138, equating to £3, 643 per leaseholder.
• Since 2019, building insurance costs surged by 92%, utilities by 73%, and management fees by 21% (compared to a cumulative inflation rate of 23%).
• Costs from the Building Safety Act spiked from over £5k per estate in 2023 to an average of over £28k this year - averaging just over £177 per leaseholder.
Commenting on the findings, Andrew Bulmer said:
“The Property Institute and its members have been concerned about rising service charge bills for some time. The cumulative impact of a pandemic, an energy price crisis, the addition of the new regime requirements for building safety, and a cost-of-living crisis in the last couple of years has undoubtedly contributed to soaring costs for labour, materials, utilities, staff and insurance – as is evidenced by our Service Charge Index. This increased expenditure can only be met with increased service charges, and our members are working extremely hard in the face of these pressures to keep costs as low as possible for leaseholders.”
