How is this life?!

[starbaby858]

I’ve name changed for this post and a recent one I’ve just posted.

I live in a council estate however the flat I live in is owned privately. So I private rent within a council block. My rent is £1180 for a one bedroom (I was previously in temporary accommodation due to being homeless and the council actually negotiated the rent price from £1340 to £1180 for me).

Funnily enough, a mutual friend has moved into the flat directly above me. When I went upstairs to her flat I asked how much her rent is and she said £465! We then started talking about private renting and how crazy it is to pay private prices when living in a council estate.

Sorry if my post isn’t making much sense as this is more of a rant then anything but I can’t believe a council flat that had a rent price of £465 is being rented out for £1180 (or £1340 for most people!) I just think this is crazy.

I bid every week for a two bedroom but the borough I live in is so overcrowded, there’s no real chance of getting a place within the next few years.

Well I guess it’s just me that’s irritated off by this😂

The system is totally bonkers I agree.

Where is this, out of interest? The idea of paying £1340 for a one bed is crazy to me but I do live in a relatively cheap part of the country so maybe I’m just out of touch.

Sigh, I wrote pissed off but changed it to irritated hence why the ‘off’ is still there. How embarrassing!

£1180 a month for a one bedroom flat?! I know people in 3 bedroom houses for less than that. YANBU.

yanbu, it is wild.

@echobunnies you’re definitely not out of touch, it’s absurd! My friend pays £1300 for her one bedroom in Clapham.

I’m in South West London. Brixton/Streatham area. All the private properties here are expensive as hell. I just don’t understand how I can pay this price and still live in a council estate. It just doesn’t make any sense

That's the effect of the Right to Buy. Crazy

I agree with you op. But then again the council properties now days, are mostly affordable rent. So be careful when bidding. I don't personally think they should be allowed to call it affordable rent, when people on benefits need to top it up using their benefit money.

It feels like the government saw what was happening, then decided it want some of that money too.

You’re absolutely right.

There’s a massive shortage of council properties within my borough yet council tenants are still able to buy their flat and rent it out? It doesn’t make any sense

That's painful OP, and it would feel really galling to be too know my neighbour was paying a fraction of the cost.

@Bluebellsand what do you mean? Are you saying that people still struggle to pay their rent even in council properties? Surely not??

It's immoral, I don't understand why right-to-buy properties weren't replaced when they were sold.

To inflate property prices and drive up rent competition

I thought you meant it and it was a clever euphemism!

That's a disgustingly high rent. But it's obvious it's coz it's London. I live in a medium sized town in the west midlands, and a one bed private rented flat would, be around £500 to £550 a month. I still don't 'get' why London is so much more to rent. Not being funny, but it's no better than anywhere else in the country. I don't get it. I don't get the appeal at all.

A one bed flat if you had it with the council would be around £350 to £375 a month.

I know someone also who has a 2 bed bungalow in a village and they pay £325 a month (housing association.) They've been there 20 years now. Another couple 3 doors away rent a bungalow exactly the same - privately (was bought on right to buy 25 years ago,) and they pay £750 a month. Scandalous really, especially as the bungalow was bought for £45,000 in the late 1990s, and the mortgage paid by 2017. So there is absolutely no need to charge that at all. It's just bloody greed.

The private owner BOUGHT the flat you live in. He therefore charges rent at a cost which reflects his expenses (mortgage, lawyers fees, taxes, property insurance, repairs and maintenance, LL insurance, void periods).
He isn't running a charity so he expects to make some return on the investment.

The council which owns multiple flats in the same block is able to make bulk savings on expenses ( bulk insurance, repairs and maintenance) etc.

I'm in the North West and only pay £420 a month for a 3 bed new build with the housing association!
London housing prices are obscene.

Same here OP though we are in SE London

Can you move over this way? Brixton is way too expensive these days, it's depressing

The previous council tent had the right to buy the property, at a discount from market price funded by tax payers , who had also funded their cheaper rent in the first place.
Then they rent out at market value.
Greedy but lawful.
Private rents in London are out of control, which is one of the reasons I move away next week.

1 bed ex council in our block rents for £1900- 2200 a month. They sell for £470-570k.
3 beds sell for a million.

Yep, right to buy. Thank goodness this scheme has finished in Scotland, I don't know if the rest of the UK will follow suit and bring it to an end, seeing how dire the social housing availability is up and down the country.

Repairs/insurance dont work like that

Everyone has the same service charge (based on a nominal bed rate) and the council pays for their tenants

Same with repairs. All are done/contacted by the council as the freeholder and each flat contributes a proportion based on a nominal bed rate. Some things are optional for leaseholders (such as new fire doors which all council flats are getting but leaseholders have an option to buy)

Insurance is part of the service charge as is maintenance.

@dreamingbohemian I could ask to be put on the bidding for Southwark but the waiting times are just as long. London has a serious house problem, especially South.

I also don’t want to move and rent privately. I’m trying to stay here as long as possible and just hope that something comes up

I hope they end it one day, I don’t know why it was ever allowed.

When I was in temporary accommodation, I met so many families who had been there for YEARS because there were no available flats. One woman had been in a bedsit with two kids for 6 years. Whereas my LL was able to save for a deposit, buy this flat, rent it out and then move to the Midlands and have another mortgage there. Why not just move to a different area and leave this council flat for someone who’s in desperate need??

As someone said, it’s greedy but lawful

God OP that's awful. And surely not right?? London is absolutely bonkers, feeling increasingly grateful to be living in Scotland these days...