A rival trade body to the Association of Residential Letting Agents has announced what it calls “a robust membership result.”

The UK Association of Letting Agents says its membership now exceeds 1,100.

Chairman Tim Clark comments: “These results are excellent, given the tumultuous year we have just gone through. We actually revised our forecast figures down a year ago to, at best, maintain our membership levels and, despite losing a number of smaller agents as a result of the economic situation, we have had unexpected growth. We feared a decline, as we tend to appeal to the smaller agent – most of whom have had a very tough year as a result of the pandemic.”

Clark attributes the surge to the association’s membership package which includes a ring-fenced account with the Metro Bank, along with Client Money Protection and redress scheme membership, as well as discounted commercial benefits, and advice and information services. 

“The unique relationship between UKALA and Metro Bank enables letting agents to avoid the chicken and egg situation of not being able to obtain Client Money Protection cover without having a ring-fenced client account and then finding that the banks won’t give them a client account unless they have CMP cover in place. It’s a situation many, particularly new, letting agents are finding themselves in” concludes Clark.