Why is there a shortage of property to rent?

[TwinklingFairyLightz]

This seems to be a post pandemic phenomenon. Rental prices are increasing due to a shortage in available properties to rent and there are bidding wars on properties that do come up.

Why is there a sudden shortage? Is it demand ie an increase in people looking to rent or supply ie less available properties?

You can still get full tax relief on interest if you rent out as holiday lettings (Air BNB etc) and meet the criteria for number of weeks available as holiday let and number of weeks actually let as holiday let. A lot of people with normal residential lets have converted them to holiday lets in recent years!

Which brings me full circle to my post. Government's are not prioritising housing as a major issue. It IS a major issue and people should not be struggling to find somewhere affordable to live. LLs can do nothing about the availability of social housing, that has to be government led. I've worked in homelessness and within social housing. I've also worked at court doing the court duty scheme representing tenants who are being evicted. Some LLs are awful, but then so are some tenants. And some social housing I've seen I wouldn't let a dog in they're that bad.

you must live in the town I live in.

There is a huge reduction in rental properties being advertised in my area. At least, for whole houses.

I have seen a small increase in two bed terraces for sale, and I believe this is due to individual landlords getting out of the game (for all the reasons already mentioned).

I have also seen an increase in professional house shares; own room, en-suite bathroom and shared kitchen. Luxury standard HMOs. These are being listed by the property companies who used to rent out the 2/3 bed terraces. They charge a rent that includes all bills. There is much more money to be made by using their portfolio this way.

@Onandupw - there is a big gap between more socialist housing being available and the USSR. People use a bidding system for social housing now, more houses means more homes to bid for/room on the list for more people. Not sure where the theory comes in. It already is in practice, there is just a lack of stock due to right to buy and then chronic underfunding by successive governments. I would also bet that the vast majority of people would pick social housing or property ownership over private renting.

I don’t disagree with you about Osbourne and I remember how many landlords were outed in parliament when it happened. I am well aware of build to rent, most of my town centre is a building site currently for this reason. Still doesn’t change my views just the bigger the private landlord the more problematic I find them. I am very sure there are lots of nice decent private landlords, I will always fundamentally disagree with it as a concept.

Tenants can’t move on naturally as they get older and life progresses because rents are so high in comparison to wages. People in small flats have stayed put longer than they intended to because after being there a few years, their rent hasn’t increased to a level that matches a newly marketed property. They would have been able to move to a bigger rental or buy their own home but can’t anymore.

But what about people who don't want long-term family housing? How would the state provide for people moving regularly for jobs or for fun (as I did in my 20s)? What about wealthy people wanting to live somewhere more swanky than the state could ever realistically provide? The private rental sector is ideal for that.

Yes, there is definitely a need for more social housing but penalising small landlords and then just sitting back and watching is a shit poor Govt policy. Build social housing and let the private sector naturally fall away as market demands drop.

It's also worth pointing out that a similar version of Section 24 (the removal of mortgage interest relief for higher-rate taxpayers) was introduced in the RoI earlier in the 2000s, was disastrous in exactly the same way it has been in the UK and was repealed. Did our Govt learn from their mistakes? No.

Agree right to buy was catastrophic.

my own view is that state subsidised properties should absolutely be adequate for those in need on a (updated) means tested basis. But for the non vulnerable it should
be a case of a well regulated market for both owners and renters.

I think often uk people don’t appreciate how unusual the model of widespread social housing is - which seems to me (I could be wrong) is basically an hang over from the feudal
system (I get in a more complex and not literal way - but still). I’m from Australia and we have housing for vulnerable people but not the mainstream concept of council
housijg for non vulnerable. Which I think is right 🤷‍♀️ Australian housing has got similar pricing problems as the uk - but (lack of) social housing I think is neither the cause nor the solution

Right to buy was only catastrophic because the houses that were sold were not replaced. But the govt of the day didn't foresee mass immigration under Blair (a major cause of pressures on housing stock) and I think honestly saw home ownership as the primary model for the UK.

@loveisagirlnameddaisy yes I mentioned that to my small time landlord fiend the other day! I said that in the not too distant future there will be incentives left right and ce fee for private landlords - and back (probably too far) the pendulum would swing)

All letting agents I work with have lost a good proportion of their landlords since January. And they are not getting the same numbers back. Where those houses go to is something if a mystery. Relocation agents are taking some on directly. Airbnb is getting some. Where a landlord has some chance of coming out even on the sale (tax alone can hit 60% apparently) they are selling and feeling grateful if they are only slightly skinned.

It's not a good time to be a landlord and will only get worse. Then all those who have been saying they should be forced to sell will see why that won't benefit the people they thought it would.

Yes right to buy should have been a moment on time backed up by long term policies to support private ownership and a well regulated rental market. Which I support. But I certainly don’t dispute that the current shit show has not achieved this.

i both rent and am a landlord so have a perspective from both sides. And it’s a shit show on both sides…

In 2004-2012 I did lots of court work, a lot was defending possession proceedings (mortgages) and by far the greatest in huge difficulties were people who had bought under right to buy.

I have a BTL in Wales I put the rent up in April, but not nearly enough for how rapidly the interest rates are rising, I can't raise the rent again until next april, so I'm seriously contemplating selling it, but couldn't get through to letting agent last week to start the ball rolling.

@loveisagirlnameddaisy - I have no issue with home ownership, wealthy people can buy homes. I do get your point about being in your 20s etc but it’s such a short period of someone’s life and the majority of people settle down somewhere at some point. I agree wholeheartedly it needs to be a gradual shift, I just get fed up of the oh woe is me I see a lot from landlords.

@SamphirethePogoingStickerist - is that in the UK? No tax in the UK is 60%.

@Onandupw - European countries in general have much more regulation on renting and so there is a lot more security. The wage disparity vs house prices seems to be a lot worse in the UK than the rest of Europe too.

I don’t know much about the Australian housing market other than home ownership is very difficult to achieve if you are young but then my sources are all 28-35 yr olds.

@Plumtreebob i doubt we differ that far in terms of goals
more means. I do a lot of work with social housing tenants and honestly I find that so often they’re disempowered.
they’re reliant on landlords and that makes thek
vulnerable. And social housing costs a lot of money which comes from tax. I’d rather the tax system redistributed wealth better so middle to lower earners could outright own rather than tax being spent on housing that they don’t own.

im yet to hear a politician provide s workable
model of any version though.

although I have y heard mick lunch on this. I find myself agreeing with whatever he says it seems. So yeah - whatever mick lynch - that’s what I think.

Yes Europe is a different model - I struggle to get my head around it 🤷‍♀️ But whatever they’re doing for rental seems to work much bettee than uk

The 'woe is me' is largely frustration at ill-thought through government policies. And for the most part, private landlords are decent people providing homes for people which the government are not providing homes for. Why everyone is intent in hating landlords is beyond me. Of course there are is a minority who do a very bad job and shouldn't be allowed to let homes. Better enforcement of schemes such as licensing or a landlords register would help solve that. But no-one has the time or inclination to do it.

In germamy I understand that normally when you rent you install your own kitchen etc. Australians are unable to deal with this concept.

I pride myself on being a good landlord - but all of the changes in recent years have made this NOTABLY harder to do. If I was a dickhead to start with I would be feral by now as a landlord.

Tax on property income can be. It's the effective tax rate vs the marginal tax rate. So in some cases landlords are currently paying 100% or more in tax thanks to Section 24.

The PP was talking about sales tax which isn't as high as 60% although CGT is more for landlords.

round here a lot of the rented property is now being done by the landlords themselves as they don't want to pay the prices that estate agents charge them.
It makes finding the properties difficult.