I'm a landlord and have rented by choice when moving around for work. My thoughts/observations on this are that quite often people need to rent and this market isn't being catered for by anyone else. My 2 tenants are both single mums who have been told they will never be eligible for a mortgage. They cannot buy even though they have deposits from sales of previous marital properties as they earn too little to cover a mortgage (and are older so may need shorter mortgage loans).
Where do people live while they save to buy a property? It's rare you move out of home and have a deposit and a job which pays enough for a mortgage and you won't be eligible for council accommodation. What about students and those that travel round for work?
The rent people pay round here is actually less than a mortgage if they applied now. A 3 bed semi rents for £1200-1300 but if one were to buy it would be £400-500k. Even if you have a £100k deposit you'd need a mortgage of £300-400k which would be £1500+. This is because all the btl LLs bought a long time ago so the rent has settled at less than a current mortgage would be. People renting comparing their rental amount to those who have got mortgages 20 years ago are comparing apples and oranges.
A lot of properties which are on the market need work which first time buyers are either not willing or able to do. We needed to sell FILs flat urgently on his behalf when he went in to care. The flat was valued at £250k but needed cosmetic decorative work (estimated at £1-2k by a couple of local painters and could have been done easily for just the cost of paint if someone were willing to do it themselves). We put it on at £230k for a quick sale. Nothing. Then dropped to £210k. Still nothing. 2 neighbouring flats in the same new build block with the same layout sold for £250k.
I often view properties which would be perfect first time buyer flats ie 1 bedroom, no garden, need work. But they have been on the market for ages because no one wants them. The problem is those who view are either renting something nicer and don't want to downgrade thinking they should be able to afford something bigger and better than they already rent (haven't we all seen that on LLL). Or they are willing to do the work but because they need a mortgage on 95% of the value wouldn't actually have the money to do the work - even if the property is valued way below the mortgage offer. Lenders will only give you what something is valued at, so there's no borrowing more and using it to add value. You need to buy a more expensive already done up place to get the full loan that has been offered.
I do long leases, let people decorate and have pets. We replace anything like white goods within days of it stopping working. I think what should be in place is some kind of union that all LLs must join which enforces good treatment of tenants.
I've also rented from some terrible LLs who couldn't afford to do repairs because they'd mortgaged themselves up to the hilt and had nothing extra. I can't imagine doing this. What if the boiler broke or something? You need to have enough reserves to deal with anything that happens.