Homeowners - could you afford to rent on your street?

[MidnightPatrol]

Worth a quick Google to find out how much it costs to rent on your street in 2024, as prices have shot up!

I only bought my house 3 years ago. Rental prices have gone up by about 50% (!) since then. There’s absolutely no way I could afford to rent here.

How on earth are people supposed to afford to rent their own properties (ie not sharing).

My daughter recently bought and her mortgage is only slightly more than her previous rent. But went from 2 bedroom flat to 3 bedroom semi. Feel so sorry for young people trying to get a home . No chance of saving while renting, so delaying family , etc. And then no option but to put DCs into daycare as both parents need to work FT . Unless wages increase in line with COL don't see any change in near future . And neither Party is addressing this as they have no control over the market and building new houses takes time and money.

No, rent down here is 2 - 3k per month for a 3 bed semi, London prices creeping into Kent.

My cousin is in the process of buying the flat he currently rents. He pays £650pcm for the flat and the 25 year repayment mortgage will be the same price.

there is a serious shortage of properties to rent in many areas, which is driving up prices.

You could rent a house on my street in 2020 for £2.5k, and I’ve just seen two go for over £4k.

I am struggling to understand how people are managing to afford this. It’s crazy money.

A house on my street was for rent at almost £3k. That's more than I make in a month in a professional job. It's not exactly a mansion, but a decent sized family home in a nice suburb of Edinburgh. No idea how people are supposed to live here 😢

I rent and pay £450
A neighbours rent is £1100
A friends mortgage used to be about £280, now it's over £500

It would be about the same or slightly more to rent. I've moved 12 miles from where I used to live in a rented property so I'm in a cheaper area (equally as nice as my previous area) and I'm paying slightly more in mortgage than I was in rent. However to rent now in my old street it would be around 600 pounds more than I'm currently paying.
I know I've digressed a bit, but my point is that even though I bought recently when interest rates were high I'm still better off.

No. I don't know how people do it and I'm worried for my kids future. Hoping against hope that it'll all sort itself out somehow.

Not a chance.

Houses similar to mine are over £1K to rent.

I have no idea how people afford it.

No, rent is around £1300 a month. My mortgage is less than £600 but if i were to buy now with a 10% deposit, it would be similar to the rent. (that's a 2 bed flat "up north" where everyone on MN says it's cheap!)

Just had a quick look on Rightmove. The only available house to rent in my village is £2200. However it’s larger than our house so I’d guess ours would be £1700-1800 maybe. We could afford it but it would be very tight and double our mortgage payments

Yes, I could rent for less than my mortgage. That's because I bought it recently, and the mortgage term is relatively short.

We bought 2 years ago, in theory rent is cheaper than our mortgage is about to be. But there is nothing equivalent to rent. Our household income is close to double the local average, so whilst we could afford it, it is not actually affordable for most families.

Yes but I wouldn't want to be paying that much.

There's nothing at all to rent on my street at the moment and hasn't been for some time - we have a real shortage here because so much gets eaten up by air BnB. But last time something came on the market it was about 50% more than my (post Truss) mortgage.

No my mortgage is £440 a month, according to zoopla it would be £1500 to rent my home.

I don't think people can afford to live here! a lot of the flats near me and now being occupied by 2 younger flat sharers, there's very few single people or couples moving in compared to what there used to be. Our graduates at work are still living in flatshares about 10 years after they graduated and it's noticeable how many of the newer ones live out of town with parents in places like Linlithgow, Falkirk, Stirling etc. A couple have recently bought a tiny 1 bed flat but there's definitely a difference in where and how they live compared to how my peers lived at their age 15 years or so ago when most of us had bought property by the age of 30 and many did it on a single income.

If we had to we could but rents here are approx double what our mortgage was. We obviously wouldn't have to pay for our own repairs either though (about to renew heating system).

I couldn't afford to buy or rent my house now. Nowhere near.

No. My mortgage has gone up hugely but it's still half the average price of a rental. For a similar property (three bedroom terraced, nothing fancy!) it's about 2k!

The housing market is ridiculous right now

@MiddleAgedDread I have noticed similar here with our <30s.

When I was their age we rented flats in Clapham, Shoreditch, Fulham etc. Still house shares, but zone 2.

Ten years later, the same people either live at home, or are renting way further out - Brentford, Stratford, Croydon.

We rent and it’s £1.5k a month. A friend bought a similar house nearby and took out a new mortgage and pays more than that for their monthly repayments. So if you’ve had a mortgage for years it might be lower but not if you’re starting out now.

@Kitkat1523 My story is almost identical to you except house worth slightly more and I’m a year younger.

Rent would be 1500, we could easily afford this as DH is still working and I receive my pension. When he retires we could still afford it but overall standard of living would drop.

Years ago, mortgages for equivalent properties were cheaper than renting or not far off.
We moved into a small 3 bed terrace in SE London in 2020 and the rent was £1400pm.
Rents for similar properties now in the immediate area are £2100 - £2500, driven by opportunistic landlords trying to make money from Elizabeth Line thats opened nearby.
House prices tbf, the same. This house was brought in 2016 for £245K, now worth £520K. So if we stay in the area, our mortgage payment will broadly be in line with the rents.
Its basically shit if you are renting or a first time buyer.

Yes could afford but it would probably be about £3k for my house which is twice my mortgage. Thinking about moving abroad and renting it out to be honest....