National Landlord Register Risks Adding Red Tape Without Raising Standards, Warns Propertymark

Our take

While this story is set in England, it carries a direct lesson for South Africa, where calls for a formal national landlord registry have grown louder alongside debates around the Rental Housing Act and the EAAB's oversight of rental agents. SA landlords and property professionals should watch this UK rollout closely — it illustrates how well-intentioned registration schemes can become bureaucratic burdens if they're not designed with input from practitioners from the outset. For SA landlords, the key takeaway is that registration frameworks work best when they consolidate compliance in one place rather than stacking new requirements on top of existing ones. For rental agents operating under the EAAB, any future SA registry would need to integrate with existing licensing and fidelity fund certificate requirements to avoid duplication. Tenants stand to benefit most from a well-run register — it makes it easier to verify whether a landlord is legitimate before signing a lease. But as Propertymark rightly notes, a register only works if it's properly enforced. Listing obligations mean nothing if non-compliant landlords simply don't register. SA policymakers drafting any equivalent legislation should build in enforcement capacity from day one, not as an afterthought.