To think that renters have put up with big monthly rises for years

[Upthebracket22]

We rent because we have been priced out of the housing market for years & years. We have raised our kids in a rented house & put up with large rises in monthly payments. We’ve been ‘lucky’ in that we’ve been on our current house for 10 years.

Noone has given a flying fuck about renters & the amount we pay & have had to find extra each year but now it’s mortgages going up, it’s all ‘poor mortgage holders’ - it’s really grating on me.

As it goes, the coming housing downturn will mean we actually might be able to buy a house. Safe secure affordable housing is a good thing.

the current housing boom has been created by cheap money and that era is ending. An entire generation of people have been priced out of a safe home & while I don’t want to people in difficulty, renters have had to put up with it for years ‘move to a cheaper area’ being the main nonsense.

We are a normal family with good jobs but saving for a deposit has been impossible because of insanely high rents.

i am tired of the ‘poor mortgage holder’ rhetoric when those of us trapped in rented homes have put up with large monthly hikes for years.

i know this won’t be a popular view on here but for us renters, the last decade had been difficult and no one has given a shit.

@Emeraldgreenjewel not contentious at all! It’s the truth!

Yeah, renting totally sucks and you don’t even get value for money most of the time. Repairs left undone/accused of causing mould and damp (funny how I treat my owned house in the exact same way as all my rentals and I’ve never had mould or damp) and landlords trying to withhold the deposits. One landlord tried to withhold 80% for the place being ‘disgusting’. One of the many reasons given was he found ONE crisp packet behind a wardrobe that was there when we arrived, which obviously meant we hadn’t cleaned properly 🙄 The TDS awarded us all the money and when we looked on right move, he’d done all the work we’d been asking him to do but for the incoming tenants. Obviously wanted our £1k to go towards that!

Your rent hasn’t increased every month surely, that would be illegal.

You have my sympathy if you’re forced to rent when you’d rather buy, the housing situation is awful for so many people in this country.

Not that I expect anyone to give a shit, but as a landlord I have been absorbing increased costs as much as possible before passing them on to my tenant with a minimal rent increase, which still doesn’t cover everything. I don’t see how it’s accurate to say that renters have been putting up with monthly increases for years.

While rents have increased the Local Housing Allowance has not kept up, so those who need benefits face deduction before they even start. There is little property available so renters do not have the choice of somewhere with lower rent.

Normal people on
Normal wages
Are not buying

Agree with everything you say, except that you’ll be able to buy a house if prices come down. First time buyers are the worst affected when house prices fall as lenders won’t take a risk on anyone who doesn’t have a huge deposit, so if you can’t afford it now, it’s not good news.

It’s not a good thing for people who aren’t home owners yet that the market is in turmoil. The only thing that could help renters is a prolonged period of no price growth, not falls.

I love the people who tell me I should just move to a cheaper area. We can afford one car so I use the train for work. By moving my train fare goes up by an extra £200 a month and my commute will increase by an extra 45 mins making my day an 18 hour shift. It’s not as easy as that. Often you would need to completely uproot your family by changing schools, house and job. I dont have an issue with renting it’s the total instability of it and the fact that the prices have jumped massively in a short space of time. There are many reasons people cannot afford a mortgage, most of the people I know only have their homes because they were given or were left money that got them on the ladder. 4 of my siblings were fortunate in this position. The other sibling rented from a good friend and they decided to sell and helped him out and reduced the price massively and gave him a hand with the deposit. I have met few people who have scrimped from scratch to buy a home in the current climate.

@midgetastic exactly!

What are we calling a normal wage, though?

Two people on minimum wage will struggle, although that’s area dependent. But the OP says she and her partner have ‘professional’ jobs.

Yes perhaps but I can't see any corporations lining up to be such landlords nor councils buying up properties either. The market is such that people have/are investing in property to subsidise woeful pensions. The mortgages available insist on 125% of mortgage as the rent and a low LTV rate. Perhaps of they were more flexible the landlord's could also be.

@Emeraldgreenjewel you are incredibly out of touch. Just because we have professional jobs, doesn’t mean we aren’t struggling. I know teachers & nurses going to food banks. I know teachers & nurses who are totally priced out. I know a doctor who is priced out.

And yet another ignorant post from someone who has no clue whatsoever of the costs and obligations of being a landlords. Why educate yourself when so much easier to blame and hate.

@Lunar270 I don't know if that's the case that in the UK council owned housing is dire. It seems to be the opposite where I live actually. Private landlords will ignore issues like damp or loose stair carpeting, whereas the council has a team of maintenance people and possibly legal guidelines about what it's not safe to ignore? They keep the properties in good condition though, and they are generally suitable family homes.

I’m not trying to be out of touch. I’m trying to be realistic.

If you are teachers and you have been since you started renting - ten years - you aren’t at the start of your careers and you are bringing in a joint income of over £80,000.

Now yes it won’t get you a lot in some areas of the country and yes the cost of living is an issue. But it’s not food bank territory either, is it?

@vivainsomnia I’ve got my tiny violin out.

@Emeraldgreenjewel its not the mortgage. We could pay a mortgage as it would be less than our rent. It’s the 6 figure deposit we would need. We don’t earn 80k tho!!

I've only ever had two families in my rental. I wouldn't put the rent up while someone is living there, only ever between tenants.

I don't have a mortgage on it and I have high standards for myself on maintenance and repairs.

The rules on what landlords can get away with are shocking. The whole system needs an overhaul, I can't believe the precarious financial situation some landlords are in. It's far to unstable a position to let them be responsible for providing a home for a family.

You must live in an exceptionally expensive area if you need a six figure deposit though, @Upthebracket22

And I do accept we need people to live in these areas but equally, rents are likely to be high as well.

As I’ve said, I’m not disagreeing with the overall premise of your post but I do think it’s either the case that the jobs you have in fact don’t pay well at all (I am not trying to be provocative: many valuable jobs don’t pay well but that doesn’t mean they don’t make a worthy contribution) or that some of the choices you have made in where you live are not the wisest.

100% behind you OP.
my husband and I have been renting since 2011.
our rent started at 1200pcm (two bed flat, no garden in east London) and after being there for 11 years with a yearly increase, it reached £2000pcm and we said no. We had mould in every room and the landlord would only replace things if absolutely dangerous and on the brink of explosion, otherwise it was ok for everything to be shit. Anyway, that aside, we decided to leave, we managed to get on a scheme called London Living Rent and we pay 20% less the market rate so we can save for a deposit. We have a three bed flat with wrap around balcony for less than what we were paying in 2011. Finally we will be able to get a deposit together.
It shouldn’t be a case that my parents have to die before I have a chance of being a homeowner.

@Emeraldgreenjewel move to a cheaper area eh? As per my OP. It’s always the same ridiculous point!

I'm in the same position, but as a state pensioner! don't know what will happen. So many landlords selling up now, far less options I can afford.

I think that there's a good chance that mortgages will go up and more LLs will sell their rented property which will bring house prices down, if house prices come down then more will buy so there will be fewer wanting to rent so LLs will have to lower rents to attract tenants.
Also if it looks like prices of houses are falling you get a rush of sellers trying to cash in on the price it is at the moment in case there is a slump.

A

Owned a house for 5 years with 3 different sets of tenants. 2 of whom renewed after first year and we didn't put the rent up. The rent is now either the same or £50 different per month than when it was first let our 5 years ago. It's priced at the average for the area/condition etc. Not everyone takes advantage.

I earn quite well. Above average wage. I am still hoping to buy I'm just waiting to see what the market does and for my son to finish his A levels.
I've been truly blessed with my landlord, I'm paying under the going market rate and my landlord told the agency not to raise my rent. I'd already received an S13 but he retracted it. But...
My rent and council tax is 50% of my wages. I support 3 adults on the remainder of my wage (children in college and 6th Form).
My friends with mortgages are horrified at the potential increases which will see their payments increase from say 500 to 800. This 800 is still less than my rent and will be divvied up by 2 working adults in fairly well paid jobs.
I don't mind being single but it would be nice to have someone to split costs with.
I do worry about lone mortgage payers though.

I think the housing market is a complicated beast and mortgage rates and rental rates are tied more than we think. Although I do accept that rental prices are insane, a pokey studio flat in my area is £950 a month courtesy of being in the London commuter belt.

I very much believe that for a mortgage assessment, if you can prove you have paid 2 years of rent and the mortgage you're asking for would be less than that. And you can pass the stress test, that proof of rent should be sufficient. So if you paid say £1500 a month rent, but mortgage would be £900 a month, that should be proof enough. Mortgages based on disposable income not a multiplication of salaries.

Our mortgage payments are on a par with renting prices though and we put down a deposit of almost a quarter of the asking price, so it's not always the case that mortgages are cheaper. Certainly when you are looking at bigger, family size houses in the South East..