What's to stop young people buying a dilapidated property and refurbishing it?
Mainly that they can’t be arsed or would rather spend their money on nights out/having the latest iPhone/travelling etc. My ds is 25 and not one of his large group of friends has bought a house, they’re all either renting or at home. They want to be close to the city or live in trendy areas and won’t consider moving to less fashionable places, buying a do-er upper and putting the time/money in. That’s fine and dandy and today’s culture is more about living in the moment and having fun whilst you’re young, but you can’t have it both ways.
My dh is a LL and has now sold several of his properties due to ever increasing loopholes and the threat of rent controls etc. It’s already a longwinded and expensive process trying to get nuisance tenants who don’t pay their rent out of a property so why carry on if things are set to get worse? So those properties have now been taken away from the rental market. That’s been happening for quite a while now and is set to become the better option for many, especially now Labour are in power.
Less houses for rent/rising population/the government not building anywhere near enough social housing = well it’s a recipe for disaster and homelessness which is already happening.
Yes in an ideal world people would be handed a perfectly renovated and very cheap house because they feel they deserve it but life doesn’t work like that does it? My dh worked really hard and came from nothing to build his property business. He took risks when he was young to buy houses and worked 16 hour days 7 days a week to do them up ready for the rental market. The property market is very up and down and it certainly hasn’t been a bed of roses, he was rarely home when the dcs were young.
It makes me laugh when I read some of the ignorant comments on threads like these about greedy landlords “getting their comeuppance” and the jealousy-fuelled bile spilled from people who don’t even understand the first thing about the property market. If it’s such an easy buck to make why the hell haven’t you done it yourself?
Do you think supermarkets are evil for making a profit on the food they sell? A cup of coffee in my local cafe costs £4 and around 10p to make - a much bigger markup than the profit gained by LL’s nowadays - but coffee shops aren’t the subject of vitriolic rage. Most LL’s own a couple of properties and barely break even with all the rules and reg’s nowadays - my db rented out a property for a year and went through hell trying to get his house back when the tenants wouldn’t leave. They wrecked the house causing thousands of pounds worth of damage and he ended up out of pocket. And you can say “he deserved it” but how would you feel if that was your house? Again, he has sold it now - another houses taken out of the rental market which won’t be replaced by SA housing. For those of you who still havent grasped it: “THE GOVERNMENT/COUNCIL’S ARE NOT BUYING HOUSES, HOWEVER CHEAP, TO BUILD SOCIAL HOUSING”. They are not even making it easier for other people to use their own money to build houses, in fact they’re making it more difficult. But bringing in rent controls and rules that seemingly protect the renter are an instant vote-winner - even though those in power know themselves it is exacerbating the problem. They don’t care so long as they get your vote, and most people are too ignorant to know what’s actually going on.
Blaming Homes Under the Hammer on people not being able to buy homes, honestly 🤣 Do do some actual research instead of parroting the “evil landlord’s to blame” rhetoric you’ve been sold.
And to the posters saying completely thick things such as “homes should be auctioned off cheaply to the most deserving/bought cheaply as social housing” etc.
So if that were your DM’s house who’d died and been inherited by you and it was valued at £300k, you’d sell it for £100k to the young couple with a baby desperate to get on the housing ladder would you? Or to the council for a steal so they could rent it to a family on benefits?
Course you would!