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Original poster

Greed of ‘buy to let’

961 replies

LittleLottieChaos · 28/04/2021 07:34

When did people start to think that they should profit from housing? It all feels incredibly Dickensian. Pees me off when I see housing being listed as buy to let investments rather than ‘here’s a house for a nice young family to live in’. Especially with the market so horribly skewed right now.

It is shocking that people seem to think they have a right to profiteer from those less fortunate by whacking on high rents, that more than cover their mortgages. Legit: you need one house, one house only. Or maybe I’m missing something... or these are genuinely just bad people.

Interested to hear how people justify it? Do you just think, fuck ‘em I want to be rich? Do you not think about the morality?

(I rent but am saving to buy an appropriate house to live in... not to profiteer from)

OP posts:
BadLad · 28/04/2021 07:37

I let to students, who have to live somewhere.

When I started working I didn't want to spend more than a couple of years in the city where I got my first job. So I rented a place. I don't think all letting is to people who want to buy a house but can't.

DinosaurDiana · 28/04/2021 07:39

Some people can’t get a mortgage. Some people prefer to rent, they don’t want to buy.
I don’t see a problem.

Lanique · 28/04/2021 07:39

Agree that there is a market for rental, but YANBU op. There will be hordes along justifying their actions 'because capitalism' and accusing you of jealousy though.

We are in a position to buy a second home but when dh and I talked it through we decided we couldn't do it for ethical reasons. I hate to think what the state of the market will be when our children want to buy in ten years' time.

Lanique · 28/04/2021 07:40

@DinosaurDiana and why do you think the majority of renters can't get a mortgage?

Sunbird24 · 28/04/2021 07:41

When I got a significant inheritance I deliberately bought a property that was already being run as an HMO, so 5 separate en suite bedrooms with shared living room, kitchen and additional bathroom. Not the sort of property your average young family or first time buyer would want or be able to afford. Then spent £50k on a full refurb to make it really nice. Each room rents for around £100 a week but that includes all utility bills, council tax and super fast broadband.
Please don’t lump all landlords in together, a lot of us are doing our best to look after our tenants, and in the current climate their homes are often more secure than ours!

DinosaurDiana · 28/04/2021 07:41

Perhaps because they’ve got a bad credit history ?

DinosaurDiana · 28/04/2021 07:41

Perhaps because they’ve not saved the deposit required ?

gannett · 28/04/2021 07:42

YANBU OP.

People will be along to contort themselves into all sorts of shapes to justify what is just plain selfishness at its core. Or to explain how their very specific circumstances make it all OK actually. But zooming out to see the larger picture makes it fairly obvious how buy-to-let - among many other things of course - has been poison to the country's housing market.

Porcupineintherough · 28/04/2021 07:42

Out of interest, whyis it so much worse to make money out of housing than out of food, or energy, or water or medical supplies? Should they all ne provided on a not for profit basis also?

ImInStealthMode · 28/04/2021 07:42

I had the same rant elsewhere just recently. I live in a place where the average family house price is over £500k and rents on a 2 bedroom flat can exceed £2000 a month. It's madness, and yet we have 'professional landlords' snapping up new builds left and right, reducing the available property, forcing up prices and THEN charging rents that make it impossible to save a deposit.

Often those same landlords ban pets and children from their properties because they don't want the hassle, yet they are a large part of the reason that families with kids have to rent!

Someone in the discussion compared it to hoarding any other basic human need (access to clean water for example) and then profiteering by selling it on at big mark ups to those who can't afford to buy the access themselves. That wouldn't be acceptable, so why is it when it comes to shelter?

Appreciate that there are also bad tenants that landlords need protection against, by the way, but for everyone there is an unscrupulous landlord creaming profits off the hardship of others.

NicolaDunsire · 28/04/2021 07:42

Agree that we need rental homes but those should be regulated social housing not shoddy profiteering landlords.

5 new houses have been built in my village, advertised for ‘ideal second homes or investment’, expensive for our low income area. Meanwhile there are 3 families with kids at our school desperately trying to find a rental to stay in the area after being given notice. Last time a 4 bed house came up to rent there were 100 applicants.

PrudenceDictates · 28/04/2021 07:42

There have always been private landlords, and people not in a position to buy - or who don’t want to buy - have to have somewhere to live.

The housing market is terrible for those who do want tot buy, though, and there should should be more, good quality social housing.

Insertfunnyname · 28/04/2021 07:44

It is very ignorant to believe everyone should want to, or does want to buy.

Students, transient workers, people fleeing a relationship, people who don’t want the responsibility of maintaining a property and would rather phone a landlord to sort it when a hole appears.

Just because you don’t want to rent doesn’t mean others don’t.

NoBetterthanSheShouldBe · 28/04/2021 07:45

I don’t think buy to let is bad, it’s not taking homes of the market. Second homes ownership and holiday letting of liveable properties is despicable.

midgedude · 28/04/2021 07:46

The trouble with buy to let seems to be it fuelled growth in house prices pricing many buyers out, increasing demand for the rented houses with no control on rents

So they just took advantage of the flawed system

Feels like tax avoidance to me .. legal and morally off

I blame Maggie selling off council houses so renters are trapped

midgedude · 28/04/2021 07:46

@Porcupineintherough

Out of interest, whyis it so much worse to make money out of housing than out of food, or energy, or water or medical supplies? Should they all ne provided on a not for profit basis also?
I think so
porridgecake · 28/04/2021 07:47

I think that as long as there is no provision of council housing, lots of potential housing falling into disrepair, housing assiciations losing sight of their original purpose, what we really need is tougher, enforcible laws around greedy, irresponsible landlords.
I know a couple of private landlords who have bought houses in a dreadful condition, refurbished them and provided comfortable homes for families at reasonable rents. All repairs and replacements are done promptly and the tenants don't have to worry about anything. Not all private landlords are rogues. Not all tenants are decent people.

maddening · 28/04/2021 07:48

There will always be a rental market though, there are people that want rentals for many reasons:
Short term stop gap
At uni
Just starting out
Moving to a new area but don't want to commit
Working away from home eg on a long term project
Moving away to help parents/relatives _often rent out own home and rent elsewhere
Stuck in negative equity but need to move - again rent out own and rent elsewhere
Don't want the responsibility of own home - eg no worry about fixing issues
Freedom to move whenever you want

I have even seen adverts in London for almost hotel style rental, so fully furnished spaces with concierge, laundry, cleaning etc all taken care of, so this can very much be a lifestyle choice

Tryingtogetbacktomysize10s · 28/04/2021 07:49

I have no issue with a capitalist society. I realise that’s not the official line one should take.

Also Dickensian doesn’t really work in this context.

KindnessCrusader · 28/04/2021 07:49

We could only get a buy to let mortgage. We pay extortionate rent to our own landlord and can't live in the lovely house we own Grin

RickiTarr · 28/04/2021 07:50

@LittleLottieChaos

When did people start to think that they should profit from housing? It all feels incredibly Dickensian. Pees me off when I see housing being listed as buy to let investments rather than ‘here’s a house for a nice young family to live in’. Especially with the market so horribly skewed right now.

It is shocking that people seem to think they have a right to profiteer from those less fortunate by whacking on high rents, that more than cover their mortgages. Legit: you need one house, one house only. Or maybe I’m missing something... or these are genuinely just bad people.

Interested to hear how people justify it? Do you just think, fuck ‘em I want to be rich? Do you not think about the morality?

(I rent but am saving to buy an appropriate house to live in... not to profiteer from)

When Thatcher tampered with tenancy law and mortgage regulations to make it possible.

The main problem with it is it’s been a large part of the reason house prices have been driven up over the last 3 years.

BuyYourOwnBBQGlenda · 28/04/2021 07:50

Currently renting by choice, though about to move back into an owned house. We do need some rental house availability and not just social housing. We relocated cities and wanted to rent for a year whilst we got our bearings. We were allowed our pets and our landlords have been amazing and carried out all repairs without grumble.

We let out our house when we moved suddenly (I lost my job in pandemic) in case we needed to come back. I try my best to be a great landlord. We have done anything asked, spent lots of cash making it perfect for tenants (painting, replaced some flooring, got gardener to come and sort it out) and only make about £200 a month 'profit' in the form of capital paid off the mortgage. Everything else is spent on upkeep, interest etc. We would've sold this summer but our tenants want to stay and are young doctors so I don't want to kick them out during a pandemic and will wait until they want to leave. It's perfect for them now but I think they're likely to settle elsewhere if and when they buy.

I think some rentals are necessary. But I think there needs to be LOADS more social housing, and that would push down prices on private rentals.

RickiTarr · 28/04/2021 07:50

30, not 3 😏

Mooda · 28/04/2021 07:50

Society needs rental properties but we have passed tipping point now, too many people owning multiple properties has helped to push up prices over time and now it's too difficult for FTB to get on the ladder, and that level of inequality is bad for all of us. It's too simplistic to blame landlords but yes I do agree that many people fail to address the moral questions. I could afford a second property but I wouldn't consider it because the sort of thing I could afford would be a FTB type place. I couldn't bring myself to go up against a FTB just to bolster my pension portfolio and profit from someone else's inability to buy.

Porcupineintherough · 28/04/2021 07:51

Profiteering is an interesting point @ImInStealthMode but it's only possible in certain high property price areas. You couldn't profiteer in my city if you wanted to, there's a surplus of cheap housing stock.

The housing market is sick in parts of the UK but that's far more down to problems with social housing and lack of enforcement by council's on the maintenance of private rentals. So why demonize private landlords when the big issue is government policy and lha inaction?