Anyone else finding flat renting hard?

[Wearescientists1]

Went to view a bog standard one bed flat in a less-than-desirable inner city area (approx 5 miles out of the centre)
I said right away we'd take it. I'd already sent him all our information. Between us we take home well over the minimum income they required, non-smokers, no pets, long-term, so on.
Landlord told me that various people had expressed interest and so he'd be in contact later when he'd decided who was the most 'suitable'.
Despite my follow up email, haven't heard a word from him several days on so I assume we weren't chosen.
It's like this for majority of places these days. I don't see what we can do?
Is it the same for buying? No experience with house purchasing.

It’s very disheartening - I know it depends where you live but the market is over saturated in many parts of the country which means competition is fierce and landlords can accept offers over asking because demand is high. No practical advice I’m afraid except to keep trying, but I know it can really start to weigh on you when you get turned down for property after property 💕

When DS was finding somewhere to rent I naively thought it was a case of looking around saying yes proving you could afford it and paying the deposit.
But no, as you say the landlord shows everybody around then chooses the best one.
I suppose as a landlord you would want to. DS was waiting for 10 days before being told he was the chosen one.
Stressful.

Thank you. There are even people offering to pay 200 a month more PCM or to pay 6 months in advance to secure the property. Can't afford to do that but also we shouldn't have to. Will just keep trying.
We've literally been on the way to the viewing 3/4 times and received a phone call saying the property has now gone. Very annoying.

What probably happened was another prospective tenant offered the Landlord over the odds on the rent.

When we were house hunting, we went to view a pretty standard three bed semi. There was us and about five other prospective tenants. The letting agents phoned us and asked if we would consider paying an extra fifty quid more each month on the rent. We said, no, we would not.

They/the landlord were capitalising on it being popular and how keen/desperate the prospective tenants were.

Talk about greed !

It's disgusting and something needs to change. My landlord is selling and I'm about to dip my toe back into the water of trying to find a rental after ten years. I'm terrified, flats round here are so expensive and so few and far between.

Yes, it's the same for buying. When we purchased the house we have now we beat another prospective buyer to it by one day.

Also, I wanted to view a couple of other houses but the estate agents said that the vendors had accepted offers on them, so they were being taken off the market.

Sorry to state the obvious, but just keep looking.

It took a while to find somewhere when we were renting in this area. Basically, I realised, I just wasn't quick enough !

So, that strengthened my resolve. Not least I realised I needed to stop looking for cheaper rents. (Easier said than done.)

I was refreshing 'Right Move' every fifteen minutes, not twice a day !

That's when I saw a property to rent and we got it. Because I had decided to pull my finger out.

The drag of driving 108 miles back to our previous rental every Friday after work, just to drive back to the B&B we were 'living' in where we were working every Sunday afternoon for two months was getting us down.

Yanbu.
Rents near me have doubled over the past couple years .
Hope you get sorted soon

Ds had same when looking to rent. Missed out on several and on the last made an offer, over asking, as they left with others still viewing.