To wonder how people afford to private rent and think there should be a cap on it

[user1498221998]

From the age of 21 I have rented from Housing Association. When I finished my University studies I was unemployed and didn't want to return to my Parents or house share so I applied for social housing. Got given a HA apartment and when I had my Son at 23 I got given a council house.

I've never had the money to buy or private rent so never got to live somewhere I actually wanted and always felt upset and angry at the fact I lived somewhere I didn't like and couldn't move.

I'm in the process of moving to a smaller house but in an area I prefer. I am moving from a two bed semi detached house to a two up two down terraced house but I will be happier there. When viewing I got speaking to the neighbour who informed me she pays £750 a month to rent her house privately!!!! I was absolutely stunned. This is a fairl;y grotty, tiny two bed terraced house in a rough part of Manchester (Central though which pushes the price up).

Intrigued I went on rightmove and found the house I currently rent for £380 a month is on a street where the houses are £700 a month to rent!!!

I am stunned! I've never private rented so never knew the cost. I will appreciate my HA property so much more now.

Both houses are worth about £120k. That's a lot of rent for 120k house. I can understand high rents in desirable areas but these are not. I earn 29k and couldn't afford to rent privately. How do people afford it?

AIBU to think there should be some cap on how much private landlords can charge?

As an almost 54 year old living in private rental I am scared of what the future holds for me.

I did once own a property but when I met my ex-husband 30 years ago I sold it and used the proceeds as a deposit on a home together (he brought nothing to the table), sadly when my ex lost his business we lost our home and ended up in a grotty private rental then in a HA house. Somewhere in the depths of the universe is a legal document that states he will pay me £15k + interest if we were to ever split up but I have zero chance of getting the money as the ex has nothing and nothing from nothing = £0. My ex has our old HA home and I am in a private rental, he has a three bedroomed, warm, huge garden semi and I have a tiny one bed, cold, no garden mid terrace for exactly the same rents.

We are landlords because we rent out our old flat. Have done for 17 years or so. Had the same tenants for about 14 years and kept rent relatively low for the area as when you have good tenants in situ, it's harder to put rent up, plus we're not money grabbers! Then they gave notice as had outgrown it with having 2 children while living there (it's a 2-bed), we had to turn spend about 20K on doing it up as it was falling apart - after a disaster tenant we have now had a lovely lady for the past 7 months. Rent is commensurate with the area, but we spend quite a lot of money on maintenance, etc and have just remortgaged again so it's not the money tree people think it is!!! If we sold we'd pay massive capital gains tax so we keep it going!

And you seem quite rude Provider. A little uncalled for I think.

Yeah, quite rude, and lazy ....couldnt be bothered to construct an argument against your points, however looks like we agree though, you dont really understand economics do you.

Markets are regulated, some things are too important to be left just to market forces
allowing market forces free reign often leads to monopolies, a winner takes all situation where a few very powerful companies or organisations are able to predate on the rest of society.
This is counterproductive as it hiders overall prosperity

They need to make it easier to get a mortgage, if you can prove you've paid rent consistently for a set period of time then you should be able to get a loan without a deposit.

I sort of agree with this. It seems madness that you can be comfortably paying £1,000 pcm rent but no-one will give you a mortgage that will be only £800 pcm. But otoh, I can also see why they won't lend 100% of the property value in case prices fall or interest rates rise significantly.

Anyone who remembers the misery caused by the house price crash around 1990 will know only too well the horrendous effect it had on people. I had a house in Croydon at the time. At the peak of the market it was valued at £84k, but I eventually sold it in 1992 for £49k. Thankfully, I still had significant equity and house I bought in Sussex had fallen to the same level, but it was a very worrying time for anyone who'd bought with a big mortgage.

At one time, Croydon county court was having 500 repossession hearings a week. My friend ending up spending 6 weeks in a B&B with her 3 kids, 2 of whom were autistic. It nearly killed her.

Imo the only answer to high rents in the private sector is a huge programme of building social housing, to reduce the demand for private rentals. Then market forces would bring rents down to a reasonable level.

that's what got the US in the mess they are in. We should tighten mortgage criteria, not loosen it.