Birmingham

Professional services, the universities — Birmingham, Aston and Birmingham City — advanced manufacturing and a large public sector are the payrolls that support a long let. They are not one occupier. A campus street and a city-centre flat let to a professional household empty on different calendars.

The combined authority’s job is regional. It does not collect council tax, and it does not replace Birmingham City Council on a planning application.

The English private tenancy is the letting statute. The House of Commons Library records that the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 27 October 2025, and that from 1 May 2026 assured shorthold tenancies in the private rented sector became periodic assured tenancies, with possession through grounds rather than a section 21 notice. Scotland and Wales use different statutes. A licence under the Housing Act 2004 is still a council decision, so a house that needs one here may not need the same licence in the next city.

Most houses are freehold. Flats are usually leasehold, and in the North West the official leasehold-dwellings release finds leasehold houses as well, a pattern much less common in London. The term and the repairing duty are in that lease. A block of at least 18 metres or seven storeys, with at least two homes, can meet the Building Safety Act occupation test. A terrace does not.

Stamp Duty Land Tax applies in England. Where the purchase is a higher-rates transaction, HMRC’s manual, updated on 1 September 2026, states that the higher rates are 5 percentage points above the standard residential rates for an effective date on or after 31 October 2024. The bands themselves stay on the rates page. The English Housing Survey for 2024 to 2025 puts owner occupation at 65 percent of households in England, private renting at 19 percent and social renting at 16 percent. Those are national shares. They are not this city’s rent.

Private renting in England was 19 percent of households in 2024 to 2025, on the English Housing Survey. That share is not a Birmingham rent, and it is not the London share of 28 percent in the same release. Local demand follows the universities in term time and the city’s employers through the year.

The private-rented landlord register announced on 9 September 2026 starts in the West Midlands on 15 December 2026, before it moves through other English regions. A Birmingham letting is in that first wave. A London date is the later date London is called forward.

HS2 Ltd publishes construction look-aheads for Birmingham, including Curzon Street station. The collection was updated on 12 June 2026. Work on the station is underway. A station under construction is a delivery question. It is not a journey time a household can already use, and it should not be underwritten as if the service were running.

What can be checked today is the existing rail network into New Street, Moor Street and Snow Hill, and the buses and the tram that already operate. A sales line that treats Curzon Street as current access is ahead of the timetable.