There should be an upper limit on rental prices

[HereLiveIAmNotACat]

Am I the only one that thinks the property investment industry is horrendous and shows how awful, greedy and selfish mankind can be? Surely there should be laws around this? Or caps on the maximum profit a homeowner can make per month relative to any mortgage on the property?
How can it be right that rental prices are ludicrously above mortgage prices purely for the homeowners to benefit from someone else paying off their mortgage and make a pretty penny on top.. then moving on to their third, fourth houses etc..meanwhile renters are stuck forking up more than they can afford with little chance of ever making it onto the property ladder due to the impossibility of saving up whilst paying rent.
Unless you were fortunate enough to have a property in the 80s before inflation/money from family you’re screwed really.
Just means less and less rental properties being available. The rich getting richer the poor getting poorer. And it’s always ‘oh it’s brilliant we’ve paid that mortgage off and are making such and such per month renting out..we’re now moving to a much larger house in a much nicer area’ as if that’s something to be proud of?!

(Yes- bitter renter here)

We all pay for the high rent through our taxes as so many need housing benefit to pay them.

Yep

Landlords don't have to let you use their asset

You're kidding? Right?

They're not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts.

@lupad

Nothing to stop you saving up deposit and buying your own house. No one is forcing you to rent from LL.

If I hadn't had family help with a deposit then by the time I saved up myself I would have been priced out of the market.

I had to move over 300 miles away to afford a property by the time I saved up.

It's ridiculous.

MNers are so blinkered to what the real world is actually like for the majority of people.

@Tabitha005

Housing should never be for profit, in my view - ever.

A friend is currently fighting her landlord who wants to increase the rent by 13% - without having done anything to rectify the fact the property is uninsulated and therefore unheatable to anything above 12 degrees. I strongly suspect the EPC has been rigged to 'pass' the property on a minimum rating. Landlords like this provide nothing in the way of value or responsibility to their tenants and need stamping out.... but, of course, when they're enabled by unscrupulous letting agents who, similarly, couldn't give a fuck, they're afforded a certain level of protection.

That's awful, your poor friend.

It perfectly demonstrates how random people should not be allowed to play god when it comes to something as basic as housing.

Tenants are made to jump through a huge amount of hoops to rent a property from someone. There aren't nearly enough checks on those who wish to become LLs.

@SonicBroom

OP I am a landlord and I can understand why you feel the way you do, they are expensive. It’s also expensive owning a property though and returns are not as stable or high as you might think after expenses.

Then if this is the case re expenses and low returns, why don’t landlords sell their properties?

It is a rhetorical question, I know why. They are an investment.

Which is crazy when you think about it.

No there shouldn’t. You can’t stop capitalism in specific areas or ways.

Rents increase as costs increase, doesn’t mean it’s unfair. Landlords are seeing insurances, taxes and more and more safety checks being required. All costs they need to recover.

Tenant houses are often more safer than owner occupied houses.

@ComtesseDeSpair

Why just rent? Why not price caps on everything? The logic is the same, surely?

I disagree.

There is a difference between a home and other things that people purchase. Yes the "logic" is the same, but everyone needs a home to meet their basic human needs.

For that reason homes should have special protections. My view is that everyone should be able to afford to own their own home if they would like to. The government should be doing more to achieve this.

I agree with you OP. Unfortunately with a Tory government the situation will always be the rich getting richer.

@Kathers92

This sort of posts really make me laugh. I am an accidental landlord I live in my husbands property and rent my own. I rent my property to a person on housing benefit who couldn't find anyone to accept her for a year.

Per month the rent is £1000

• mortgage £470
• property management (flat) £92
• insurance £61

My tennant has children and other neighbours were complaining of noise so to get noise cancelling underlay and carpet £2200.

Tennant left immersion heater on which caused my hot water system to fail £1100.

To be honest it sometimes doesn’t cover costs I keep the property because I feel its the best way to invest money long term however some months I am definitely out of pocket

Not to mention my previous tennant who didn't pay any rent for eight months and I had to take to court to evict.

You're not an accidental landlord. You could sell the property but have chosen not to.

@WomanStanleyWoman

So you’d be happy with someone telling you how much money you can make out of your biggest asset? Should there also be salary caps in case people dare to charge employers too much for their skills?

No one owes anyone else anything at a certain price.

Housing shouldn't be for profit at all, this is not the same as a salary.

agree op , i was a private renter and by the time my last landlord hoicked up the rent yet again on the basis of its to cover repairs despite the fact she never did any and then served me with a section 28 when i pointed out that fact to her i was very bitter as well , i and dd were then homeless and in temp accomadation for 9 months before being offered a council house , couldnt find another private rent , tried every estate agent , prices were ridiculous even with housing benefit ,it would have been unaffordable and of course most of them wanted a garentor as im a single parent .

we need more social housing , lots more , but sadly it never ever seems to happen

[quote Kathers92]@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry have you not heard the term “accidental Landlord?” It applies to people who at the time of buying a property did not intend to rent it out. Which would be me.[/quote]
It's a bullshit made up term used by people uncomfortable about telling people they're a landlord.

@Ylvamoon

It's supply and demand. As long as someone pays X-sky-high amount for a 3 bed property in a big city, landlords will charge charge it. They be stupid not to. Utopia is a long way off.

It’s not just big cities though.

Working class area of the midlands, former small mining town. £800 for a 3 bed terraced house.

We’ve had southerners buying up a lot of the properties. They advertise on the local pages, offering quick sale with no chain - pricing out local first time buyers.

The housing crisis is a reality, I can’t afford to rent a flat and I’m currently living in a large single room.

@lupad

Nothing to stop you saving up deposit and buying your own house. No one is forcing you to rent from LL.

If I hadn't had family help with a deposit then by the time I saved up myself I would have been priced out of the market.

Same here. Most people under 40 who own their own home have had family help.

People who say "nothing to stop you buying a house" are probably those who have inherited money or in very high-earning jobs which, no matter how much you say "work hard and you can achieve anything", are never going to be available for the masses.

This is like the "just stop eating avocados" view, and it's horribly unrealistic, patronising, head-in-the-sand thinking.

The housing situation in the UK is a complete shambles.

I like renting for a number of reasons, but I do agree there should be a rent cap. Many other countries do this. When I lived in Scandinavia rents were calculated by size, facilities and a set amount per square metre and could not be 'adjusted' to suit to owner's whims. There were more protections too; no landlords ducking out of their responsibilities or letting out damp, dripping, unhealthy properties. It was all enshrined in law and it worked because it was an expectation.

We could do with a similar system here.

It is. Shocking tho
My neighbour lives in an identical house to me Their rent is almost double what I pay on a mortgage.
How can that be right

@Heatherjayne1972

It is. Shocking tho My neighbour lives in an identical house to me Their rent is almost double what I pay on a mortgage. How can that be right

It's not, but it's allowed because a Tory government are never going to put any kinds of controls on this to help people who are less wealthy (or even averagely wealthy) to own their own homes.

Surely the reason it's expensive in the first place is because demand outstrips supply. Putting a cap on rents is going to mean fewer rentals overall, because for some properties the rental cap would mean it's not financially viable to rent out any more. The problem with a tent price cap is surely that it doesn't address the underlying issues around the lack of affordable housing.

I think a place to live, a home, is a basic human right.

I think that the security of owning that home, or having the prospect of owning that home in the future and not always being controlled by the whim of a landlord, is also a basic human need for many people.

Many people are just greedy, owning two homes with one as an investment, maybe that's OK, but when you get people who own three, four, five, six plus properties and rent them out to profit from those who will never be able to afford to buy, it creates a huge problem.

There is a limited amount of property in the UK and there should be more controls to stop people from amassing buy-to-let properties when so many people just want to own one home to live in.

If housing is a basic need, which it obviously is, then yes massive investment in social housing, that can be rent capped. If this is market driven, then the solution surely is to remove the supply of tenants by providing an alternative. It's ridiculous and pointless to suggest that in a capitalist economy, people won't make the best use of their assets, or make financial decisions primarily for themselves. People are told on here constantly to protect themselves when moving in with a partner to keep their propery and rent it as a safeguard. My ex and I did that when we first moved in. Until we needed the equity to upsize, we rented his flat. Poor landlords who don't do maintenance are a totally different issue to the fundamental underlying market.

@HugeAckmansWife

If housing is a basic need, which it obviously is, then yes massive investment in social housing, that can be rent capped. If this is market driven, then the solution surely is to remove the supply of tenants by providing an alternative. It's ridiculous and pointless to suggest that in a capitalist economy, people won't make the best use of their assets, or make financial decisions primarily for themselves. People are told on here constantly to protect themselves when moving in with a partner to keep their propery and rent it as a safeguard. My ex and I did that when we first moved in. Until we needed the equity to upsize, we rented his flat. Poor landlords who don't do maintenance are a totally different issue to the fundamental underlying market.

Building more social housing, whilst necessary, isn't the only solution.

There should be limits on the numebr of buy-to-let properties that one is allowed to purchase, and once you have a buy-to-let property, there should be stricter controls around what landlords must do to keep the place in good order for the tenant, and a cap on the amount of rent that can be charged.

Property in the UK is in limited supply and there should be more recognition of housing as something that everyone is entitled to.

Don't JUST build more social housing. Put better, stricter controls on managing the housing we already have. Yes, property is an asset that people can own and benefit from financially, but this has to be balanced with the needs of the people, which to be honest in a fair society should come first.

@parietal

Putting an upper limit on rents can't work. If someone is prepared to pay $41,000 per month for this 4 bed flat, who am I to stop them? www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/116739710#/?channel=RES_LET

the only solution is to BUILD MORE HOUSES and to BUILD MORE FLATS. Then purchase prices and rental prices can come down (or at least stablize). As long as there is high demand and not enough supply, prices will stay high.

It’s £41,000 not $

House next door sold this year to a buy to let landlord. My sister bought a house on same estate in a better condition. Sister pays less than half in mortgage compared to what the landlord charges for rent. The people who've moved in don't have much and aren't in work at the moment. So that rent is being mostly paid by benefits. It's nuts

@parietal Not if the government intervened and stopped greedy landlords charging so much.

Yes we do live in a capitalist society however my argument is that housing, as such a basic human need, should be in a different category to other assets and have different limitations for the benefit of the population.

Could you not get on the property ladder? Try buying a bed sit, holding onto it for 5 years before buying bigger? We were priced out of rentals around where we lived, so bought a small doer upper, in an undesirable area. Sold it 5 years later for a small house in a better area. Might move again to a bigger housebin the same area.