To think rents are going up because of insane levels of demand and not billionaires buying all the houses?

Playing Mumsnet Bingo, are we?

Im seeing so many houses which were rentals now up for sale. The ones left are in very short supply and extortionately priced! Im currently buying and i know im fortunate but my mortgage is significantly less than my rental payment. More should be done to help long term, reliable paying renters into a more secure housing situation eg 5% deposits or even 100% mortgages. The worry of landlords selling up and no fault eviction is real

Most of the bungalows in the village where I live are being extended upwards and outwards so there won’t be any bungalows for people to downsize too. Lots of greenbelt land has been built on in the past few years but they are all over £500k so none of it is affordable housing.

It's not the fault of immigrants that too many visas have been issued relative to the number of homes being built for well over a decade - achieving only the illusion of economic growth while the country's productivity was on its arse - that was the fault of government.

This sleight of hand - pretending that people are xenophobic for observing the incompetence of government - is ridiculous.

Correct. Supply & Demand.

More people equals more demand for houses. That's hardly a controversial fact.

I wonder when the immigrants would be blamed,it did not take long.

I own a 3 bed end terrace BTL in a mid size NW town - same family have lived there since 2018 (rented within the first day of me putting it to market). Quick look on rightmove now shows me there are no comparable price properties in that area at all if I sold now and they had to move elsewhere. The available 3 bed rental properties are charging up to £600 per month more than I charge currently. A crazy difference for a family to find. There is a huge demand for affordable 3 bed homes.

The housing crisis was caused by Margaret Thatchers 'Right to Buy' scheme which has seen 2.4 million social housing homes sold to private owners between 1984 and today.

Imagine how much better the system would be right now if those 2.4 million homes were still available to the most needy in society?

House proces are indeed function of supply and demand. But the demenad side is a complex picture. People who want to own rent because they cannot affors to buy, Peole who want to rent socially rent privately because supple is catastrophically low.

Our economy is very London and SE focussed so demand will always out strip supply there. We have an ageing popuation and older people are more likely to under occupy and there are limited incentives to downsize. We also have had 40 years or more of policies that protects and rewards investment in resential property over and above all other income and asset classes.

It is not as simple as people in, people out.

Why should I downsize? I look after grandchildren every week and have them overnight. I need my spare bedrooms. Hope that’s ok with you. If the greedy buy to let landlords all sell up there will be even less places for renters. Obviously.

I'm in a sea side town. Lots of residential homes have been turned in to Air B&Bs and serviced apartments charging huge rates. One of my friends ended up homeless (no fault of her own) and had to pay £800pw to stay in an Air B&B for months. Despite her having a good income and good landlord references there was no where else for her to go. Even temporary homeless accommodation was full. I don't think all the owners are billionaires but they are people making an income off the housing crisis which IMO is not ethical.

The cost of moving is one deterrent for us, especially land transaction tax (stamp duty). We're still in the extended 4 bedroom family home with a decent garden and relatively private.

Also, we've become used to space and privacy - new build 2 or 3 bed houses in our budget are tiny and too close together.

New Landlord regulations, and energy regulations are now pushing many to sell their properties. Less properties available, mean that those landlords providing rented accommodation have the monopoly of the market. In turn the property market is swamped with properties for sale, the time of year and the dire current market means it's stagnant. Private rental properties where I live in Dorset, are horrendously expensive and there are not many available. My friend rents a 2 bedroomed bungalow for her and her two sons, it's £1,500 per month, plus an extra £50 per month on top because she has a small dog. A 4 bedroomed house up my road is being rented out for nearly £3,000 per month! I don't live in a massively wealthy area, either but neither is is poor.

This is a huge issue in tourist areas.

But mostly it's we haven't built enuogh housing for literally decades.

.and the boomers not downsizing

They outright own their homes - but most I know did look at downsizing hoping to free up some money or just get a more suitable property for olde age.

However there is a lack of suitable properties - risks in state you are buying vs house you've done maintance for decades plus moving cost - mostly it's not really worth it.

There is though also an issue with very rich buying up assets as the returns otherwise are very low - apparently - so is an issue likely to grow over time but don't think it the main issue yet - give it a few decades and it could well be.

Genuinely not being goady, but why is it offensive to use the term boomer? I call myself a millennial and I didn’t know these generational terms were insulting.

“There’s multiple reasons rent has gone up so much and it started with Maggie thatchers right to buy and the failure to include a legal mandate to build new council houses with the money that came from the selling off of council houses.”

So far from any legal mandate to build new social housing with monies from the sale of council housing, Thatcher required a very large proportion of the money to go straight to the Treasury.

No failure at, just regulation Tory spite.

I’m stating one of the reasons why we have a shortage of houses. Where did I say we had to restrict anyone?

If demand wasn't so high then buy to let landlords wouldn't have such an incentive to buy properties.

I think during the last year of conservative government, migration levels were over a million and net migration was about three quarters of a million. Whether houses and flats are owned or rented, it's irrelevant...they are still occupied. Increasing the population by hundreds of thousands each year is a challenge.

Immigration is too high, we have around 5 houses to rent here, some months there is nothing. We can’t house indefinite numbers of people.

The mortgages are much higher, and the cost needs to be passed on.

Its only going to get worse.

This, there was a new build of about 280 houses all sold. I wonder what do all these people do to afford them and when any go up for sale they are snapped up. Maybe it's people moving out from London.

In pretty rural areas it’s second homes and holiday lets. Most villages locally have about half the smaller properties as holiday lets of second homes. There are whole rows of terraced cottages in the market towns and now it’s spreading to 1970s bungalow estates.
When a smaller bungalow or house on a nice plot with a garage and decent garden sells locally the new owners always make it bigger so it’s no longer suitable to downsize to.
The new housing estates don’t build bungalows and if they do they’re not on decent plots with garages, gardens and utility rooms.
I live in an area with very little immigration and many people can’t get an NHS dentist, doctors appointments are hard to come by and rentals almost impossible. There is social housing being built but it’s being built by councils 50 miles away to move people into. That shouldn’t be allowed. Social housing should be built for the local families as there are many who need housing.
Theres also many empty shops in the market towns, due to high rents, and many villages have an empty pub because the council don’t like them being converted to housing.

I’m in London, so might not be representative for the rest of the country. There are so many new flats on airb&b. There is a new development near me and I was shocked how many are rented out on a short term basis, it must make the landlord more money. Where I used to live (central, by the river), the flats were completely empty at the weekends as they were mostly filled with weekday workers. I know a few people renting near me and there seems to be a lot of availability, but the cheaper properties get snapped up quickly. There doesn’t seem to be a lack of properties, but a lack of affordable ones.

Did you not see the migration figures released this week? 750,000 in just one year. Only a tiny number of these are illegal migrants ie in hotels or HMOs. The rest have to live somewhere and they are in existing housing stock.

There are whole blocks of luxury flats in London standing empty because they were bought by investors.