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)

@Testingprof I 5hi k uhave tagged the right person. The reason you can rent for more than you can have a mortgage for is because rent includes maintenance - yes some dodgy ones don't. The bank wants to know you can afford maintenance as to protect their investment.
After the 2008 crash banks don't want to do the repossession process so try to limit their risk. They don't want to risk negative equity. Banks want to limit their risk especially because interest rates are low and have been low for many years so banks aren't making much off each mortgage currently.

@MaryAndGerryLivingInDerry

Rent not only has to cover mortgage but insurance, agents fee if managed by an agent, maintenence.

Err no- rent covers the market rate or thereabouts of the property. The mortgage, insurance, agents fees and maintenance are the landlords costs. The rent does not have to cover them.

So you think a landlord should be out of pocket for having someone live in their house? At the end of the day private landlords are businesses not charities.

Just means less and less rental properties being available
How do you arrive at that conclusion? (BTW the word is ‘fewer’ not ‘less’’).

I am sure that you are not the only one that thinks the property investment industry is horrendous and shows how awful, greedy and selfish mankind can be. However I have been a renter and I am now a landlord and I am not 'awful, greedy and selfish'

You are not correct that rental prices are ludicrously above mortgage prices purely for the homeowners to benefit from someone else paying off their mortgage. Mortgage is not tax deductible, you as a minimum you have to charge mortgage plus tax, then there is maintainable costs that need to be included. My tenant had a leaky pipe that if I was in the property I would live with for a while but as I offer the service a plumber is out in 24 hours.

I was born in 1987 and so you can't just blame the boomers.

My tenants are in the house and I rented for a number of reasons, so it is not just a trap. Moving to a new area/ country, having to be flexible for a job, wanting to live with friends and not commit to a mortgage, wanting to live maintenance free or to use capital from a previous house to reset a business, are all reasons to rent.

It is your choice to be bitter but please don't tar me as awful, greedy and selfish.

Plenty of people still buy without help. Prices are high in London and some hot spots but elsewhere if you can save 10% you can buy on 2 modest incomes. Rents vary dramatically too, we paid considerably less renting where I live now than last year than our mortgage despite having a large deposit (from divorce settlement). People need to rent for all kinds of reasons and it's important landlords are wanting to rent out houses.

My first property was bought in the 90's in London on a single normal income, no family help - I have friends who didn't buy then (too busy taking mini breaks etc to save up the £3k you needed as a deposit) who are bitter 45 year olds now because by the time they wanted to buy 10 years later it was 3x more expensive

@skodadoda bit comment you were replying to but if landlords start to make a loss every month they will either sell, or that may keep the property as a holiday let or air bnb type place or leave it empty. Why? If they view property/ bricks and mortar as something they want as an investment. It may cost them less than losing money on a tenant to have it empty.

YABU. I rent my house out as I live abroad, and make just enough to cover the mortgage,not including the house insurance. Since Covid my tenant is in and out of work, so some months I have to cover the mortgage as well as my own housing costs where I live which are extortionate, so making out that all landlords are greedy money grabbers really gets my goat. Since UC, I can't even rely on my tenant getting housing benefit. It's so stressful

Where I live there are hardly any properties up for rent, when one does become available it is snapped up straight away. We purchased our house 8 years ago and have a relatively low mortgage, if we were renting this house our rent would likely be double our mortgage payments. But at the same time it's probably worth not far off double what we paid for it due to how house prices have increased in that time. If rent prices were proportional to the mortgage payments would that mean someone would pay half the rent as someone else for the same style property, on the same street as one landlord has owned the house longer?
Those moaning about accidental landlords, would you rather those people sold their houses than let them out? If so that would mean there would be even less rental properties available meaning rental prices would be even higher this thread is full of people saying they can't afford to save for a deposit for a house of their own so it isn't as though selling the property would mean more people would be able to move from a private rental to their own home.

My first property was bought in the 90's in London on a single normal income, no family help

The key thing here is the 90s 😆

So you think a landlord should be out of pocket for having someone live in their house? At the end of the day private landlords are businesses not charities

Indeed.

I think the whole system should be overhauled so that there are fewer private landlords, and that being a buy-to-let landlord is a less appealing way of amassing a fortune.

People will always work in their own interests, and I don't really blame people for seeing an opportunity to make a lot of money and taking it. Which is why the government need to sort this out and make it less easy to do this.

Or caps on the maximum profit a homeowner can make per month relative to any mortgage on the property?
And a other clueless post that totally misses that the biggest cost of being a landlord for many is the tax they now have to pay.

Before mortgage, insurance, repairs, checks, agency costs, and putting into an emergency fund in case of non payment, I have to pay almost £6k annually in tax.

I actually struggle to repay my mortgage after all of it. Many in the sane situation hence they increasing the rent or selling.

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.

I agree

@TinselTitsAndGlitteryBits, it depends if you are prepared to move to afford to buy. My son moved to Hull where property is cheap, taking a huge pay cut, but can buy a 2 or 3 bedroom terraced there cheaper than he can rent for.

@Tabitha005, how exactly do you rig an independent energy rating? I would love to know.

@lupad,
But even food is not price capped, or water for that matter.

@chaosrabbitland

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

No more social housing. Give people more education and force them to work. All this free stuff is beyond a joke.

[quote caringcarer]@lupad,
But even food is not price capped, or water for that matter.[/quote]
Give a couple of minutes, another MNer will be along and say it should be for specific people.

BTL is a business. You can’t cap a business on what it does and doesn’t buy. There is no ‘right’ to anything. If you think there is than you are very much mistaken.

@S2617 yep!

Totally with you OP. YANBU in the least.
A home is a human right. It's shocking that the rich are given the chance to get richer on the back of the basic human need of the poor. There definitely needs to be rent caps, and greater protections for tenants in general. There's a housing crisis in this country, and it urgently needs to be addressed...

No more social housing. Give people more education and force them to work. All this free stuff is beyond a joke.

And how does this policy work in practice?

@Beautiful3

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.

If she could do that, do you really think she'd stay in a precarious situation with the rental market the way it is?

Not everyone is in the privileged position to 'just' buy a starter property in a 'undesirable' area.

@S2617 do you really believe that human beings don't have rights?!
Do you not agree with The Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

@NannyOggsWhiskyStash

YABU. I rent my house out as I live abroad, and make just enough to cover the mortgage,not including the house insurance. Since Covid my tenant is in and out of work, so some months I have to cover the mortgage as well as my own housing costs where I live which are extortionate, so making out that all landlords are greedy money grabbers really gets my goat. Since UC, I can't even rely on my tenant getting housing benefit. It's so stressful

How stressed do you think the tenant feels? Knowing that they're in and out of work and that you could remove the roof from over their head in a moments notice.

@NannyOggsWhiskyStash

YABU. I rent my house out as I live abroad, and make just enough to cover the mortgage,not including the house insurance. Since Covid my tenant is in and out of work, so some months I have to cover the mortgage as well as my own housing costs where I live which are extortionate, so making out that all landlords are greedy money grabbers really gets my goat. Since UC, I can't even rely on my tenant getting housing benefit. It's so stressful

How stressed do you think the tenant feels? Knowing that they're in and out of work and that you could remove the roof from over their head in a moments notice.

@vivainsomnia, don't forget gas certificate, electricity certificate and gas service charge for boiler. Oh and every time new legislation comes out LL have to do it immediately. I had to have a metal consumer unit fitted to btl even though nothing wrong with solid plastic box and cost £1200 to upgrade. My box in my own home solid plastic. Rented properties have to meet higher standards than a non rented property. I had to increase rent this year, first ti.e in almost 4 years be ause of this legislation, to absorb cost into rent. Blame the government. The previous box was less than 5 years old and nothing wrong with it accordingly to electrician.