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Asian investors unlikely to join London's landlord accreditation scheme

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London Mayor Boris Johnson. Photo: AFP

In a bid to clean up London's private rental sector, the city's mayor, Boris Johnson, has launched a voluntary accreditation scheme for landlords and letting agents.

But few Hong Kong investors will join the scheme, the agents say.

Scandals, such as unscrupulous landlords renting out garden sheds to illegal immigrants, and letting agents defrauding tenants of their deposit money, have prompted Johnson to launch the London Rental Standard, the first comprehensive set of benchmarks for the city's letting market.

The guidelines include setting minimum response times for landlords to make property repairs, and full disclosure of letting agents' fees.

Landlords who join the scheme can use a kite logo in marketing materials to show they are accredited, which will make their property more appealing to tenants, Johnson believes. He hopes to have 100,000 landlords accredited by 2016.

Marc von Grundherr, director at Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings, said the mayor's scheme would not raise standards because it was voluntary, which meant rogue landlords would continue to operate as they do now and not join.

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