To welcome rent controls in London

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Many other cities have them like Berlin and new York and it seems to work well. Helps people live in a city and not cleanse all the poor people out.

Daily mail foamers are hating corbyns plabs, so that probably means it's good.

Helena - agreed re the disgusting language used against the Grenfell victims but I make no bones as to my hatred of landlords. It is a considered position.

Anne, do you hate accidental landlords too?

Would you seriously have some sort of government inspector set the "correct" rent for current tenancies?

If you did; when the tenant moved on would you force the LL to let again instead of selling with vacant possession?

Do you even believe home ownership should be allowed at all?

I do wonder at these accidental landlords. In all my years on this earth I've never once had a spare house accidentally fall into my handbag and then proceeded to accidentally rent it out. Maybe I've just got the wrong type of bag.

www.salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=4126

AnneGrommit Like all other humans, landlords die; sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly. That's how it happens.

If you knew the children of such a person would you start hating them and regarding them as carbuncles? If they applied for and got possession - or just waited for the tenant to go - and then sold the house would they stop being carbuncles?

This is actually amusing. Unions are there to restrict supply of labour in the interests of the workers and to avoid others coming in and undercutting their rates, That is exactly about supply and demand otherwise how do you think the union gets leverage in the first place?

If there were more housing supply and less demand do you think that people would spend so much on housing? Is it all one big conspiracy against low paid people?

And you hate landlords as a considered position? You actually hate people based on their possession and rental of an item? Why don't ou hate peoples who own a house and don't sell it to someone with less money than them as well? That would be logical given your position.

I can't see how rent controls can work. If a LL has a £1.5k pm mortgage, there's no way he would rent for say £1k pm. End result? He sells and very likely that's one more property off the rental market.

The mortgage cost doesn't dictate the rent, if these highly leveraged landlords that are affectivly gambling sell up the property doesn't cease to exist.

I have a relative who has lived in an apartment in an affluent area of Manhattan since 1970 just off Park Avenue. She pays less than a $1000 a month due to rent control. That's ridiculous. Even she admits it! She also owns a beach house which she can afford due to her ridiculously cheap rent.

Well that's a better situation than many in the UK face. Boomers that bought their house for 10k in the 80s are now living mortgage free while the next gen has to pay 600k for the same house.

It's going to reach tipping point soon.

There is No such thing as an accidental landlord. There are people who won't sell the place at the price it is now worth.

One of the BBC case studies of grenfell tower is a couple ( both survived) living in a flat owned by a landlord who had bought it cheap as right to buy and was now renting it out. Does corbyn propose to stop this abuse?

Outside the holy city we do have rent controls (market forces) and, surprisingly, affordable housing.

The fuckwitted ' I hate landlords because I was told to do so' position is common on mn. Hate of any other profession or position gets banned, this blubbering is allowed because it is terribly right on.

No arguing with stupid.

What people say "I hate landlords" what they really mean is "I hate that my life is a bit shit and that I don't earn enough to rent something nice or buy anything"

If renters want nowhere to live then introduce rent controls.

Landlords have already been hit with major changes to how much tax they pay which when it fully comes in in 2 years will already make some rentals unprofitable.

Landlords will find a way of making their property the most profitable it can be (eg turning a house into 3 or 4 studio flats and kick out the family that live there). If you're a less desirable group, eg DSS or students you'll never find anywhere (as a landlords cost is higher to house you).

You may think "oh heartless landlords" but who wants to make a loss on their investments?

Those who can afford it who are mortgage free may not rent their property at all, being a landlord is a big time consuming hassle.

As for London, the yield is already poor and house prices are not going up anymore so I think Alot of landlords would just pull out the market altogether. Honestly it would be a disaster.

What people say "I hate landlords" what they really mean is "I hate that my life is a bit shit and that I don't earn enough to rent something nice or buy anything"

Crazy. I own my house and hate landlords because it's explotative and effectively people farming.

Saying that they should of regulated to stop so many entering the casino world of buy to let.

At least with section 24 coming in and mortgage rate rises likley many will have to sell up.

Landlords will find a way of making their property the most profitable it can be (eg turning a house into 3 or 4 studio flats and kick out the family that live there). If you're a less desirable group, eg DSS or students you'll never find anywhere

This is why it should be regulated, like water and electricity are as they are essential services.

It's a pyramid scheme and all the freshly printed money hasn't helped the economy, it's just created an asset bubble.

How on earth is being a landlord "people farming"?! Not everyone is in a position to buy a home. There will always be a need for rented property: it's absolute pie in the sky to think that nobody should provide private rented accommodation.

The mumsnet attitude towards landlords is ridiculous.

The MN attitude is generally very pro landlords. On here every landlord has a Tennant that doesn't want to buy (despite survey after survey showing that 90%+ want to buy), they rent below market value and fix everything the same day.

Millions of white collar workers with good jobs and education want to buy, but they can't even afford what a blue collar worker on one wage could afford 20 years ago. We're going backwards.

In some areas, perhaps. But there are plenty of cases in which rented accommodation is by far the most convenient option.

90% of tenants want to buy the property they live in? Would it be possible to back that up, please? Surely that depends on the type of property and the area it's in. They might want to buy, but not necessarily their rented home.

I know an Irish landlord who is selling up her properties because of the rent controls there. It doesn't make sense for her to continue renting them out when mortgage & upkeep exceed the rent she makes.

Also, they are likely to bring in a ruling in Ireland whereby if you have a tenant in a property that you want to sell then you can only sell the property with the tenant in situ. That was the final straw for her.

So no, I don't believe rent controls work in the longer term. It will result in fewer rentals available and slum flats

specialsubject If you exercise the right to buy and then let the property that's not an abuse. The abuse is the illegal subletting by tenants of social housing. That is the curse of social housing.

Should RTB have been introduced? Probably not but it was immensely popular at the time. In 1083 Labour under Foot and Benn proposed to stop it - and to make existing buyers give first refusal to the council at price paid plus improvements. The electorate gave them such a kicking that not even Jezza has proposed to interfere with the ownership of former council properties since then.

Why is there a belief that all renters can't afford their own properties?

This is why it should be regulated, like water and electricity are as they are essential services

What about food? That is an even more essential service and that isn't regulated.

Actually you totally misunderstand why water and electricity are regulated - they are regulated because the companies are in a monoloply position and so there is no competition that would drive down prices. Like if you love in London as a household you can only buy water from Thames water.

They aren't regulated because they are 'essential services'.

Why is there a belief that all renters can't afford their own properties?

No idea but you grenerslly don't see people who choose to rent for location or lifestyle reasons moaning about hating landlords.

Probably because people that choose to rent have enough cash to rent nice properties.

I rented for years from great landlords who had fantastic properties in super locations. I wouldn't have been able to afford those properties (or indeed wanted to buy them).

Rent controls are not a good idea IMHO. All it means is that those lucky enough to get a flat won't move out. So others just don't get a chance to rent a property. It certainly won't work in areas of chronic housing shortage.

There were not many houses around for £10K in the 1980's.

except maybe in very run down areas. Such a lot of myths surrounding housing.

Quite, Viviennemary. It creates another situation of a few super winners and a big bunch of losers. And, to mention Grenfell Tower again, it encourages illegal sub-letting. If the differential between your rent and what you could achieve on the open market is very large, then the temptation is there.

Very good point LadyinCement. I hadn't thought of sub-letting. And I was very surprised the Grenfell Tower sub-letters are not being prosecuted. It must have made the already incredibly difficult task of listing those missing much more difficult. Not to mention insurance being invalid due to sub-letting.