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).

I could afford it, but it would cost about 2.5 times my mortgage (,and I only got on the housing ladder a decade ago). Rental prices are awful, we need more social housing/rent controls

I couldn't see anything on my street, but all the one bed flats (which is what I own) near me seem to be nearly £6000 a month to rent. So no.

Wtf? Where are you?

Yes we could

No, about £600 more than our mortgage.

Central London.

Just under €6k a month for a nearby house of about the same size. The rental market is nuts in Dublin so anything affordable doesn't spend much time showing as available on websites, so the fact that I can see the house as being available means that it's probably too high for the market and doesn't have interest.

Almost nothing for rent in our town and nothing like our property. Rents of the few available properties £900 - £1700 pm.

No. My mortgage is much higher than it was (thanks Truss) but to rent a house like mine would be another £200 min on top of that.

Yes I could afford to rent here. Mortgage is lower than rent but that's because we've been paying a mortgage and building equity/paying off mortgage for 20 years. We've also put in new kitchen/bathrooms/windows and central heating in the past couple of years.

Crikey that was an eye opening google of rent prices near me. Aside from the fact that there is nowhere in the next postcodes to actually rent, the rent charged is more than I take home a month. I've been lucky and a property owner for over 20 years so am in a good position otherwise I very much feel for those trying to get on the property ladder now.

UC doesn't qualify as on benefits. If someone's on eg 2k take home for the main earner and 600 take home for a part time income it would be enough to rent whilst still being eligible for about 600 universal credit which they wouldn't even need to declare to show affordability.

Definitely not. Rental costs where I live are utterly insane (high house prices too, but renting is worse)

My immediate thought was 'yes, of course' but then took a look on Rightmove. A crappy 3-bedroom bungalow is £3000/month. Although I could afford it, I definitely wouldn't want to be paying that! Looks like the kids will be moving back home after uni then!

When I was younger and renting before I met DH and got a mortgage, I didn't have to show my income. I just paid the deposit and rent in advance and that was it.

From what I understand it's different now? People have to show their income and landlords consider potential tenants in a similar way to mortgage lenders. They want certain multiples of income. And many don't want to include any benefits even if the tenant is also working.

@Againname yes they are far stricter now - albeit it seems to vary by agent.

When I was renting I had various demands made of me before contracts were signed - bank statements (!), a letter from my employer confirming my income, guarantors (even when earning a decent income).

The checks became more stringent as the years went on (presumably as the private rental market became more competitive), despite my ability to afford the rent increasing.

While I appreciate the landlord wants a tenant that can and will pay, I always thought it was rather intrusive to want to eg see my personal spending, while not being interested in the many years of previous successful tenancies!

In recent years it sounds as though it has gotten even worse - I hear many reports of having to pay months of rent upfront just to secure somewhere.

To buy a similar house to ours is about £1700 a month mortgage, to rent is about £1400 so renting is cheaper, our mortgage is paid off so not comparable

Sounds like a nightmare @MidnightPatrol

So different to when I was younger and renting.

I've just looked on Zoopla and I'm horrified. Nothing comparable to mine, but plenty of 2 bed flats to rent around the £1,200-£1,400 mark with one (incredibly luxurious) one at £2,450 😮. Not so many years ago a standardly nice 2 bed was just under £800. This is crazy. How do people do it? I assume it's shifting from families to flat shares but even so, it looks impossible.

Just about afford it but it’s £1,500 more than my mortgage. I pay £2k a month at the moment but on a low fix from ages ago and 50% equity. So if I was buying now with a 10% deposit it would be actually quite a bit cheaper to rent.

Renting my house would cost £600 more than a mortgage per month. It's the type of area that's nice enough, but not THAT nice. We could afford this but the quality of life would decrease drastically.

No - our mortgage is about £500 a month , but to rent it would be over £1k, likely £1.2k. It would eat up a large chunk of our salary. We'd have to leave the city

Nothing in my street or surrounding streets is up for rent. There are rooms in HMOs for the same as our mortgage on a 3 bedroom house.

That said I remember when me and DH moved into our first rented flat in 1999 and my mum was saying how it was more than her mortgage. But the difference is we could afford it on two minimum wage jobs.

No chance, just checked and a 3 bed would be over £2.5k at cheapest.

Just looked where I live. Wow! Shocked at the rental prices. It’s about £3k a month. We pay half that on our mortgage.