To think rent is so bloody unfair

[Tar19891]

My rent is 800 per month. A mortgage on the same value flat would be 450 per month. Not in London obviously. It’s not fair is it?

Yes, it is completely unfair. A national scandal.

@BambinaJAS There are actually credit reporting tools now they can get in touch with your landlord and co-match it with your bank statements to show that you are in fact paying your rent and it counts towards your credit rating

Long time renter here, I think you are being unreasonable.
Renting allows me to live in an area I could not afford to buy, with no stress about the cost of new roofs, or windows, or paving the drive.
I don't have to mow the grounds or shovel drive, or budget for upgrading or renovations.
If work changes, or our needs change, in a matter of months we can be free to move elsewhere.
I say this as someone who pays $1,725.00/month in rent.

But if a landlord charges a rent above what the market will bear then his competitors will get the business instead. That's how the market price is set.

This is simply not the case in a low vacancy market. Many urban areas fall far short of a healthy vacancy rate so prices just keep going up.

@Jobseeker19

I have yet to meet a landlord who pays insurance.

Eh? Unless you outright own your house it's a condition of the mortgage. Would youd own a 200k item and not insure it? Contents no as they dont belong to you but unless all landlords are as thick as mince with money I bet the vast majority value the worth of their investment

Couldn't agree more OP. Housing in some parts of the UK is completely fucked because

1. Not enough affordable council or HA housing available to rent (because it's all been sold off and not replaced).

1. Professional BTL landlords encouraged by shows like Homes Under The Fucking Hammer.

1. Amateur landlords letting their house out for a year or two.

1. Extremely rich arseholes from overseas (Russian oligarachs and their Chinese equivalents) getting tax breaks to buy in London and nothing "trickling down" from this.

I'm not an expert so I don't know how much points 2, 3 and 4 proportionally affect the rental market (and indeed the buying market) but 1. is a HUGE issue.

Where do you think the property owner gets the 15K down payment from? Some may get some help from their family, but I'm guessing most of them made years of sacrifices to save it up.
Sure sounds like they need to do some basic financial education in the schools.

I thought that maintaining property insurance was a requirement for a mortgage?

@Jobseeker19

I have yet to meet a landlord who pays insurance.

May I introduce myself

All of which you're choosing to do.

Op isn't choosing to pay so much in rent that she can't save for a deposit.

That's the difference.

YANBU OP.

We own out home though sheer luck- a gifted deposit (my childless aunt) and at the 'right' time. We bought in early 2016 with a 10% deposit and not have over 50% equity. Our mortgage payment is much less than the rent we were paying for a smaller, not as nice, house before we moved. Without the gifted deposit we would never have been able to buy.

We've had steady pay rises since 2016 yet still couldn't afford to buy our own home if it were on the market now even with the gifted money.

Quite honestly, it's starting to drive a wedge between our friend groups now- the ones who own their home and the ones for whom that is entirely out of reach and resent those who have bought (often wishing for a crash )

So I arrived in this country in 2018 with nothing more than four suitcases and four children one in a buggy. I was a student and on benefits, I manage to save £6000 in a lifetime isa so I think the government contributed £1500 to that to help me to wards the costs. Whilst on a break from uni which started on 25 May I got a job I got three months wage slips and I bought a house for £120,000 on 1st September. None of this stuff is rocket science

Oh look, a pig just went flying past. I don’t believe a word of it.

I am a landlord. So far this year I have made a loss of £4000. Property maintenance and insurance, management fees, tax etc. are very expensive.

@Seafog

Long time renter here, I think you are being unreasonable. Renting allows me to live in an area I could not afford to buy, with no stress about the cost of new roofs, or windows, or paving the drive. I don't have to mow the grounds or shovel drive, or budget for upgrading or renovations. If work changes, or our needs change, in a matter of months we can be free to move elsewhere. I say this as someone who pays $1,725.00/month in rent.

The figure you pay in rent is utterly meaningless unless you state your income frankly. I appreciate you would rather not to that but without it, it's just bluster.

That said, I don't think anyone would argue a fair and reasonable free market based rental sector is fine. We don't have that in the UK.

@Seafog

Long time renter here, I think you are being unreasonable. Renting allows me to live in an area I could not afford to buy, with no stress about the cost of new roofs, or windows, or paving the drive. I don't have to mow the grounds or shovel drive, or budget for upgrading or renovations. If work changes, or our needs change, in a matter of months we can be free to move elsewhere. I say this as someone who pays $1,725.00/month in rent.

The UK market is completely different so there's not really much point comparing. If your dollars are American that is.

@Blossomtoes

So I arrived in this country in 2018 with nothing more than four suitcases and four children one in a buggy. I was a student and on benefits, I manage to save £6000 in a lifetime isa so I think the government contributed £1500 to that to help me to wards the costs. Whilst on a break from uni which started on 25 May I got a job I got three months wage slips and I bought a house for £120,000 on 1st September. None of this stuff is rocket science

Oh look, a pig just went flying past. I don’t believe a word of it.

Which bit would you like me to post proof of then ?

@Egghead68

I am a landlord. So far this year I have made a loss of £4000. Property maintenance and insurance, management fees, tax etc. are very expensive.

Did the house depreciate?

A580Hojas yes, the sell off of council housing in the 1980s and onwards has cost the next generations dear.

Something like 40% of ex-council housing is now owned by BLT landlords.

My local authority gave away much of its 'hard to let' stock in the 1990s, some of which it is now renting back from owners to house homeless families in.

@Embracelife

Your house likely appreciated in value by £30,000 which is enough to pay for that boiler 25 times over.

Equity is meaningless though until you sell or secure a a l loan on it, which will cost you interest ....

You can borrow £30,000 at 3%

Lets not pretend that 3% is a huge problem.

Far too many "woe is me" comments from homeowners in this thread.

The UKs property landscape is mind-boggingly terrible. Have seen places being advertised for £3k+ a month in London that looked like a bomb went off inside. My DH & I were horrified. It was like touring a dwelling in a third world country.

It never ceases to amaze me how dysfunctional the lettings landscape really is. Poor housing stock just makes it infinitely worse.

@MrsTerryPratchett

But if a landlord charges a rent above what the market will bear then his competitors will get the business instead. That's how the market price is set.

This is simply not the case in a low vacancy market. Many urban areas fall far short of a healthy vacancy rate so prices just keep going up.

But that's the market setting the rent and ensuring that a limited resource is used most efficienty! Invisible hand. It does the same thing for house prices. And it works the other way round in areas where supply exceeds demand.

PS Woe is me.

My rent is £1200 for a one bedroom😂 it’s a joke but what can you do ey

@SofiaAmes

Where do you think the property owner gets the 15K down payment from? Some may get some help from their family, but I'm guessing most of them made years of sacrifices to save it up. Sure sounds like they need to do some basic financial education in the schools. I thought that maintaining property insurance was a requirement for a mortgage?

In many cases the downpayment comes, by remortgaging existing homes they've hoovered up earlier and enjoyed capital appreciation on.

Existing winners of capitalism are determined to eat all the fruits that the generations after them so that the wealth is entrenched and becomes a gated community.

I would love to know where your flat is
£120 thousand & get £800 per month rent

That does seem high, in my area flats selling for between £80k and £120k rent for around £475 to £575 a month.

[quote Tar19891]@Chestofdraws I pay tenants insurance already. I appreciate that I don’t have to pay for cost of repairs but TBH they’re not 4.2k per year are they?[/quote]
They can be way more some years