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.

I know people I work with (Nurse) who managed to get a council property years ago. While still living in their council house they have managed to save enough to build a large house abroad where they intend to retire. They have told me that they have made sure that their son has tenancy succession to the council property.
They see nothing morally wrong with this.

I get it, they're building loads of new homes in Lewisham and Greenwich though, including affordable rent flats, so maybe worth keeping an eye on.

Honestly! London is not a real place, I swear. I’ve lived in South London and don’t see the appeal to London at all. I briefly moved to Kent in 2019 and I loved it so much, I definitely want to move back there.

I’m currently a single parent and my whole family live in SW so all my support is here otherwise I would have found somewhere else to live ages ago

I don't think it is likely to stop anytime soon in England. The government keeps going on about how they are going to allow housing association tenants to buy their places. I got informed I could do this five years ago.

I completely get why you’d feel that’s not fair. I’m not in London but this is one of the three bed houses available for me to bid on this week (affordable rent…we can’t afford to pay this so will stick with our two bedroom house and hope something comes up that we can afford!)

You're living in zone 2, on the tube, in a much sought-after area, council estate or not. There's loads of cheaper places to live even if you're limiting yourself to south London. But if you don’t want to move and rent privately then you're limiting yourself massively to this one area that costs a bomb. I sympathise, and get why you want to be near family, but there's no mystery around the answer to your question. Kent's still close to your family. There's direct trains from Bromley to Brixton that take 20mins. Can you not bid in that borough for a bigger place?

@WreckTangled 1K??? I thought the whole point of social housing is that it’s meant to be affordable?! That’s a crazy amount for a council flat or is that the norm now?

It’s even crazier that, that amount is still cheaper then the 1 bed I’m in now. Can I ask what area you’re in?

@Pinkdelight3 I could but it’s not as simple as that. I’d have to go through the process with Kent and whatever borough I can but I have no local connections there so it’s more difficult. It’s not as simple as asking my housing officer to switch my bidding to another area.

I’d also like to stay here until the kid’s get bigger. Isolating myself and the kids won’t do me any favours especially as they’re so young

It’s not a flat it’s a three bedroom house. There are two different rents - social rent and affordable rent. The affordable rent has to be a certain percentage of market rent (I think it’s 80% but I could be wrong) which is what all the new build houses in the area are now. I’m happy with any house to be fair, it doesn’t need to be new! We’ve been waiting for over two years so far but are grateful we have the two bedroom house we have. We’re in the South East

Our council has a scheme whereby they guarantee (and pay) the rent to the landlord and the tenant pays the Council the equivalent of the rent as if it were Council property. Council tops up the rest.
So the tenant pays £660 to the Council for a private rented 2 bed house (all mod cons, gardens, parking, semi detached) and the Council pays the landlord £900. The tenants are people who cannot raise a deposit even if working, or other reasons cannot private rent.
Still cheaper than the Council paying out for b&b for a family and gets people into homes of their own.
Excellent scheme.

Landlord probably could get more on the open market, but Council deals with boiler/heating and minor repairs so saving £700 a year on British Gas contracts anyway. Plus rent is guaranteed and inspections carried out every 2 months instead of 6.

Oh wow I’ve never heard of affordable renting, that’s really interesting! I need to look into that

This also sounds wonderful wow!

Know it's not simple but your current situation is not without it's difficulties and, as you say, you'll be waiting a long time for what you want to come up in the area you want. People move to areas without local connections all the time. I lived in Brixton 20+ years ago when it was affordable. No way I could afford to live there now so moved a lot further out. Didn't know anyone but you build a network through your DC/school. It's about weighing up the pros and cons, which you have done and fair enough. You want to stay in that coveted area that costs a bomb and has extremely limited social housing, so that's why it's hard.

That's hard OP, I sympathise. Easy for us to say 'why live in London?' but if that's where your support network - and your life is - then it's just not easy to uproot. I'm just shocked and saddened humans are being made to live like this.

To be fair the council had access to block grants from central government to build the properties in the first place.

so the building and acquisition of social housing was subsidized by the taxpayer hence why you would expect it to be cheaper.

it’s not really fair imo that subsidized housing is only available to some and many are living in social housing and paying subsidized rents who are under occupying and/or could afford private housing. Doesn’t seem like a fair allocation of state resources,

your rent is a lot. There is a housing crisis and we desperately need more housing in the uk. However tbh you also live in one of the most expensive areas in the uk so it will likely always be relatively expensive.

I live in Wimbledon and houses on my terraced street cost £1m.
The house next door (updated, but without loft extension so two doubles and an office/nursery), living, kitchen/diner, garden, and 12 minutes walk to the tube or 7 minutes to train that goes through Streatham on to St Pancras is on the market for £2600/month. Could you share?

London is expensive. New York is expensive. Paris is expensive. Beijing is expensive. Tokyo is expensive. And many more capitals around the world are more expensive than London. Not sure why people are surprised by this.

Give over with the dramatics. Live like what? Supported by taxpayer to live in London? Many can’t afford to do it and cannot get taxpayer help and therefore don’t live in London.

How much of that is paid by UC though?
That’s the real scandal to me - that’s the rents are so high and often funded by benefits.
Not benefit bashing any recipient… but I do wonder, from a modelling point of view, if there was no housing benefit (by that name or other) what the impact to rent would be.

The right to buy should have come with strings attached, that you would not be able to rent it out in future, because this is the outcome.
Not accusing you but it ends up where some people become bitter towards the council tenants around them, paying much cheaper rent than they are but it's the landlords responsible.
The divide in rent amount is ridiculous.

YANBU private LLs need some sort of maximum amount cap.

It’s disgusting how they can charge so much!

How much of that is paid by UC though?
That’s the real scandal to me - that’s the rents are so high and often funded by benefits.

Not benefit bashing any recipient… but I do wonder, from a modelling point of view, if there was no housing benefit (by that name or other) what the impact to rent would be.

Where I live the max UC allowance for a 2 bed is £120 if you have no income at all.

Yet the properties are £700+ in my area.
I don’t know how single people afford them.

I'm more surprised that your friend is only paying £465 pm in that area? How is her rent so cheap?

I’m currently on maternity leave so my whole rent is paid for by UC. However once I go back to work, I’ll obviously be the one paying this.
That’s another thing though. LLs are able to do right to buy and rent the property out at market prices but then the rent can be paid by the taxpayers money?

So in a nutshell, whilst I’m on maternity leave, other people are paying my rent because of rent to buy. It’s all very interesting.

@CoffeeLover90 I think you’ve misunderstood. In no way am I bitter towards the council tenants around me (not sure where you even got that from?). I’m pointing out the HUGE difference in rent amounts due to private renting. I’m jealous of my neighbours!! I’m bidding and I want to be a council tenant to pay what they’re paying. I’m not bitter at all…