Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think rent increases “because of inflation” are immoral when many landlords own outright?

247 replies

RentRealityCheck · 16/12/2025 14:00

I keep seeing rent hikes justified with “inflation”, even where the landlord has no mortgage and their costs haven’t meaningfully increased. At that point it feels like pure profit-taking, passed directly onto tenants who already have no leverage and with huge knock-on effects for stability, mental health, family life and society more broadly.

AIBU to think this isn’t just market forces but greed and that pretending otherwise ignores the damage being done?

OP posts:
LemonLass · 17/12/2025 07:43

Hi @RentRealityCheck
I haven't read the whole thread but here to say that rentals are a commercial enterprise.

The morality model doesn't naturally fit because being outraged at landlords making money makes zero sense. Making profit is most landlord's objectives. Rental income must covers expenses (mortgaged or not).

In a nutshell, a mortgage is just one of a landlor's expenses.

Tabitha005 · 17/12/2025 07:35

Londonisthebestcityintheworld · 16/12/2025 19:17

They came onto the market and were bought up by BlackRock and serial investors not first time buyers etc. Some people don't want to buy. Every housing market in every country needs rental stock.

Private landlords have sold up. The politics of envy have won and the average person has been shut out of building wealth or a retirement out of property.

Show quote history

@Londonisthebestcityintheworld Blackrock et al are parasites. They've recently bought up a tonne of social housing stock in Denmark - of all places - a country historically known for it's excellent social housing provision.

Private equity is the scourge of the earth in so many senses when it comes to hoovering up public infrastructure and utilities.

I'd encourage everyone to watch the UN Special Rapporteur film called 'PUSH' and then decide whether privately-owned housing, designed for pure profit, is still a 'good' or even an 'adequately required' thing. Housing should never be driven for profit - shelter being one of the fundamental needs of any human being.

Private landlords are propping up a failed social housing system here in the UK, with many local authorities actively seeking landlords to add to their social housing offering. It stinks, not least because there are also private companies making an absolute KILLING from temporary accommodation housing 172,000 childen - often in substandard conditions.

Offering shit housing to poor people is a real money spinner.

godmum56 · 17/12/2025 07:34

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:51

Because housing is a necessity? It’s the same as how food and utilities shouldn’t be run to make a profit.

Show quote history

tell farmers that.

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 07:31

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 07:02

No. A right is something like a human right.

Show quote history

Yes the right to own property is covered by ECHR

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 07:24

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 07:15

I do find it funny that people expose themselves as believing that people shouldn’t own their own property

Show quote history

Does anybody believe that?

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 07:20

Alexandra2001 · 17/12/2025 07:02

UK seems to accept unjustifiable price rises, look at fuel prices? global oil and gas prices have been very low for months - yet prices we pay keep increasing.

LLs are no different.... they know there are property shortages, so hike prices to the highest level they possibly can.

Wait till LLs new income tax rates come in! will go straight onto rents plus a bit more too.

Was gobsmacked when the Govt introduced this.

Though inflation has just fallen substantially this morning..... will rents follow??

Show quote history

Inflation is the rate of change, because it’s dropped to 3.2% it just means prices are going up 3.2% rather than 3.5%.Completely agree about the additional Tax for landlords, gone up 2% and legislation has a cost. Together you’ve got a baked in average rent increase of 8-10% just to break even.

Global oil prices have been rock bottom, but we tax energy at around 75%.

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 07:16

Alexandra2001 · 17/12/2025 07:06

People have no choice, well, they do, they can become homeless or move back with their parents........

In our village, rents used to be around 400 to 600, just 5 or 6 years ago, now they have more than doubled... and people snap up properties.

Remember too, LLs selling has a cost, the tenant will be kicked out, they wont be the ones buying, it'll be another LL or a relatively well off FTB...

..... being evicted is extremely stressful and will almost always mean the tenant ends up paying more for another property.

Show quote history

And where I live, rents have gone so high that properties sit empty for months.

jadoreyes · 17/12/2025 07:15

Professional landlords let property to create an income stream. As prices rise, that income stream needs to rise as well. Otherwise who’d be a landlord?

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 07:15

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 07:12

Yes agreed, they’ll sell and remaining market will charge a higher premium to compensate for additional tax and risk. Then someone will be on mumsnet in 6 months saying there’s no rental properties available and when they come up they are too expensive and go in a couple of hours . It’s all incredibly predictable.

Show quote history

I do find it funny that people expose themselves as believing that people shouldn’t own their own property

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 07:12

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:58

But they won’t. Landlords will soon find that people won’t pay their prices and prices will either go down, or they’ll have to sell. Either one is a good result.

Show quote history

Yes agreed, they’ll sell and remaining market will charge a higher premium to compensate for additional tax and risk. Then someone will be on mumsnet in 6 months saying there’s no rental properties available and when they come up they are too expensive and go in a couple of hours . It’s all incredibly predictable.

LlynTegid · 17/12/2025 07:10

Any increase should be written into a contract to begin with and the measure of inflation clearly specified. The law should be such that if it is not, then either there is a limit.

NellieJean · 17/12/2025 07:09

If I’m buying a car from you will you sell it to me for less than it’s worth because you have finished paying for it.

Alexandra2001 · 17/12/2025 07:06

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:58

But they won’t. Landlords will soon find that people won’t pay their prices and prices will either go down, or they’ll have to sell. Either one is a good result.

Show quote history

People have no choice, well, they do, they can become homeless or move back with their parents........

In our village, rents used to be around 400 to 600, just 5 or 6 years ago, now they have more than doubled... and people snap up properties.

Remember too, LLs selling has a cost, the tenant will be kicked out, they wont be the ones buying, it'll be another LL or a relatively well off FTB...

..... being evicted is extremely stressful and will almost always mean the tenant ends up paying more for another property.

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 07:02

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 07:01

Wouldn’t that be a right ? being able to do something if you want?

Show quote history

No. A right is something like a human right.

Alexandra2001 · 17/12/2025 07:02

RentRealityCheck · 16/12/2025 14:09

In most cases, tenants obviously don’t know the details of a landlord’s finances. I’m not claiming tenants can reliably identify who does or doesn’t have a mortgage. My point is more about the justification itself - when rent increases are framed as unavoidable “inflationary pressures”, that explanation doesn’t always hold in situations where the landlord’s actual costs haven’t risen in line with the rent.

Even where costs have increased, the question for me is whether passing those increases straight onto tenants -who can’t easily absorb them, is ethically different from other forms of price-setting, given the power imbalance and the essential nature of housing. It’s more about whether “inflation” is sometimes used as a catch-all excuse for rent rises that go beyond cost recovery.

Show quote history

UK seems to accept unjustifiable price rises, look at fuel prices? global oil and gas prices have been very low for months - yet prices we pay keep increasing.

LLs are no different.... they know there are property shortages, so hike prices to the highest level they possibly can.

Wait till LLs new income tax rates come in! will go straight onto rents plus a bit more too.

Was gobsmacked when the Govt introduced this.

Though inflation has just fallen substantially this morning..... will rents follow??

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 07:01

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:56

That link doesn’t show that it’s a right. It shows you can if you want.

As I’ve said. Landlords who hoard properties and push prices up.

Show quote history

Wouldn’t that be a right ? being able to do something if you want?

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:58

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 06:57

I was being sarcastic, they are quite clearly going to sky rocket.

Show quote history

But they won’t. Landlords will soon find that people won’t pay their prices and prices will either go down, or they’ll have to sell. Either one is a good result.

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 06:57

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:48

Good?

Show quote history

I was being sarcastic, they are quite clearly going to sky rocket.

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:56

Sesma · 17/12/2025 06:55

They are not stopping you though, you just don't have the funds, that is nobody's fault but yours

Show quote history

They are. They reduce supply, thus pushing prices up.

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:56

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 06:55

I just provided the link.
Who is stopping you from obtaining a property?

Show quote history

That link doesn’t show that it’s a right. It shows you can if you want.

As I’ve said. Landlords who hoard properties and push prices up.

Sesma · 17/12/2025 06:55

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:53

Landlords who hoard and reduce supply, pushing up prices.

Show quote history

They are not stopping you though, you just don't have the funds, that is nobody's fault but yours

WhereIsItPlease · 17/12/2025 06:55

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:48

I’m still waiting for you to show me that you have a right to be a landlord? If so, how do I pursue the people stopping me from obtaining a property?

Show quote history

I just provided the link.
Who is stopping you from obtaining a property?

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:53

Sesma · 17/12/2025 06:53

Who is stopping you buying a property

Show quote history

Landlords who hoard and reduce supply, pushing up prices.

Sesma · 17/12/2025 06:53

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:48

I’m still waiting for you to show me that you have a right to be a landlord? If so, how do I pursue the people stopping me from obtaining a property?

Show quote history

Who is stopping you buying a property

sleepyjessie · 17/12/2025 06:51

Zanatdy · 17/12/2025 06:50

I rent (buying soon) but landlords are not a charity and obviously want to make money. Why shouldn’t they charge market rents?

Because housing is a necessity? It’s the same as how food and utilities shouldn’t be run to make a profit.

Swipe left for the next trending thread