This country is doomed

Know someone in the South East who has traded their way up from a £10,000 flat in the far north. They bought did up and rented out for a while then mortgaged it and did the same again and again. Then sold all of them and bought a place in the South East

I think you are mistaken about EA only selling to landlords. They are supposed to market the property to get the best price not keep things secret and only sell to a small set of people.

I bought my flat for 7.5k and that was because I got a 70 percent discount because I was a council tenant and had been there a long time . It had to be demolished and sold and I got the market rate. (26k) I live in the West of Scotland and there probably are places in the UK that are cheaper than here but I would think in many areas a flat for 10k would need a lot of work doing to it

A two bedroomed flat that my brother bought two years ago was 100k although he paid slightly more as it was more or less furnished as the seller wanted a quick sale

Lots of people are priced out of the housing market. If I hadn't bought my council flat I wouldn't have been able to buy at all on a single person on my wage. I know lots of people who live in private rented accommodation because they can't afford to buy - even if they have good jobs

My mum bought her council house for 26k 30 years ago. Houses in her street are selling for over 100k now. This is a very ordinary row of terraced houses with two bedrooms. This is part of the issue - as the value of property goes up - some people are priced out - they can't afford to buy so they have to rent privately or get social housing

Prices are increasing year on year as well. In Glasgow a landlord can get four students in a flat for 600-1k per room - they aren't under any pressure to sell. They know people are desperate for housing.

They don't get the chance to put in offers! The estate agents "know" the multiple landlords and give them first dibs. Multiple landlords are also often "cash buyers" (from re-mortgaging other BTLs) and that makes them attractive to sellers who don't have to wait longer and don't have the risk of a FTB not getting a mortgage or having to wait several weeks for the mortgage to come through. Lots of the cheaper end houses are also not mortgageable due to many factors, i.e. water/power cut off, no kitchen, leaking roof, unsafe, fire damaged, built over mineshafts, etc so again FTBs can't buy as they need a mortgage. See it a lot on Homes Under the Hammer - gone to auction because not mortgageable and bought in cash by a multiple landlord.

Then why don’t they buy. I don’t get this “priced out by landlords”

The price will be the going asking price.

I have seen places going for under £25,000
I know someone who bought at £10,000

Just how cheap do they need places to be.

What do you think would happen if there was less landlords than now
Every landlord I know hasn’t sold any properties. They have just changed them to short term rentals.

The whole point is that with every restriction aimed at reducing the number of landlords
we have ended up with less rental properties.

The slum landlords (the ones who all these regulations were going to guard against) are thriving because they take no notice of all the rules and regulations

let's not forget as well that lots of US corporations and other corporate companies are hoovering up our rental properties as investments. this kind of corporate takeover should be banned. it's not fair, it drives up rental cost, drives down available property to buy, drives up property prices in general, takes money away from the UK, and it makes me so cross!

Those homes still exist. Lots of people want to buy but can't afford to, as they're often priced out by landlords, many of whom only buy "bargain basement" properties which would otherwise be bought by people who end up having to rent.

Of course, there's always a "market" for renters, i.e. those who don't want to buy, can't afford to buy, temporarily living in a different town for work, Uni, etc., but a lot of the 12 million renting don't actually want to rent, they want to buy. Fewer landlords hoovering up all the cheaper properties will mean that more people who want to buy to live in them, will be able to do so.

Rather than price caps and government controls on rents, how about sticking to basic economics and increase the supply of housing.

Its been shown that rent controls just encourage people to stay put as long as possible, passing the rental contract through to their children.

In Eastern Europe under communism where prices on items were controlled by Government, demand was managed by the ability to queue and wait rather than the ability to afford it.

I'm not saying private landlords should entirely not exist. But there should be caps and more regulation around rents, number of properties they can own and so on.

Some of us lived through the boom times created by Reagan and Thatcher which were created by deregulation and privatization. This drove inflation sky-high but drove a temporary rise in living standards and wealth for those who were already on or able to get on the property ladder. Now the elite are squeezing everyone for as much as they can get out of us on everything we buy: food prices are all up significantly, property and rental prices are off the scale, the health service is becoming more and more like the American one with people getting medically unnecessary surgeries ahead of people waiting for life-saving surgery.

All predictable and preventable but no government left or right did right by the public.

But that doesn't remove the need for private landlords. Buying takes time - where do people live in the interim? You move to a new city for work, how do you know what area you want to buy in? You're doing a significant renovation, where do you live? You need a deposit to buy, where do you live whilst saving up? You need to be in your job for 3+ months before you can get a mortgage, where do you live?

Part of the reason many people can't afford a home is due to private landlords. It makes it impossible to save up a deposit for many people. The price you pay for rent is often higher than a mortgage, giving people on a low income next to no chance. Add in all the landlords that have multiple properties, taking those away from the market and its a recipe for disaster.

Totally agree,12 million people live in private rentals. They are going to have to build or somehow acquire over five million homes.

Most Catholics in the country are Catholic in name only.

You are though

You started a thread on it.

That is far fetched nonsense.

Tell us what you really mean with people who don't speak English

When did those rules come in though

To acquire British citizenship by naturalisation you need to be able to demonstrate that you can read, write & speak English. If you are British by birth there is no such requirement.

I looked it up yesterday and to get British citizenship you apparently need to be able to demonstrate that you can speak English, so in theory you cannot vote if you cannot speak English (as it should be)

The British Citizen test is in English, so they will be speaking English.

Or is that not what you meant?