Real Lettings and Notting Hill Housing join forces to tackle homelessness

Real Lettings, a pioneering social enterprise set up by homelessness charity Broadway, today announced a new partnership with Notting Hill Housing Trust.

Together, they will work with private landlords across London to house the growing number of homeless people in the capital.

Real Lettings matches Broadway’s housing management skills with its ready list of tenants.  Private landlords with one-bed studios or flats across London access these skills through professional leasing and management services.

Their properties are then managed and maintained to provide housing and help for people who have experienced homelessness and are ready to take on the responsibility of a tenancy.

As one of the largest Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) in London, Notting Hill Housing Trust has chosen to work with Real Lettings to address the shortage of social housing.

Typically, leasing services focus on larger properties. Real Lettings plugs this gap while helping Notting Hill Housing Trust to achieve their overarching goals of tackling homelessness and improving the social housing situation.

Sailesh Shingadia, Procurement Manager at Notting Hill Housing Trust, said: “We’re really pleased to have the team from Real Lettings onboard.  They’re professional and efficient and share our vision of finding workable solutions to London’s social housing crisis.

"Instead of turning away landlords with smaller properties, we can work with Real Lettings to house people who would otherwise remain homeless.”

Howard Sinclair from Broadway said: “It’s great to be working with an established organisation like Notting Hill Housing Trust.  As well as dealing direct with landlords, we’ve been working with Local Authorities and their Empty Homes teams.

"We’re always keen to work collaboratively and forge further links where possible.

"Real Lettings has run smoothly to date and we’ve received lots of positive feedback.

"We’ve successfully housed 125 people and are keen to build on this success in the hope that we can provide a viable template approach that can be adopted by other organisations tackling homelessness.”

Real Lettings offers private London landlords access to in-house property management skills and ready list of tenants through professional leasing and management services.

Its aim is to open up the Private Rented Sector to provide permanent accommodation for those who have experienced homelessness. Both tenants and landlords are given support and advice throughout the process.

The scheme has attracted funding from The London Housing Foundation and the Transitional Spaces Project.  Other supporters include: The Empty Homes Agency and Hammersmith and Fulham, Lewisham, Southwark and Westminster Councils.