To think landlords who own multiple properties are part of the housing crisis?

[ByArtfulOliveDuck]

Is it unreasonable to say that having a portfolio of rental homes is unethical in a housing shortage?

But paying more means inflation and house price/rent rises, so it's a never ending cycle until we actually "change" the housing market, rather than forever increase NMW which fuels housing cost inflation!

They thought that the housing market would crash somewhat. That didn't happen which IMO means we have a dire housing shortage in Wales.

There is a rising population but the bigger impact is the change in the size / nature of households.
Which I doubt will end soon, if ever.
If policy makers are only ( if at all ) looking at the population numbers they will never provide enough housing.

Divorce meaning two homes are required reduces housing stock. Retirees looking to downsize from a family home to a smaller property find that a two bed bungalow costs more than a family sized home. As do apartments. Add in the stamp duty, solicitors, estate agent, removals fees. You need a big pot of cash to give up a family home so stay put.

It's dead mans shoes.

My exs GPS said this. Sadly they ended up lied to so a developer could btl. They sent round a couple posing as newly weds who wanted to buy the house to raise a family in. It was turned around quickly and rented for sky high prices. They were gutted.

This exactly.

It is also completely wild to me that two people working have to to receive hap to help them pay for a place to live?

Why are we using taxpayer money to make landlords rich and allow places to underpay staff.

I think we are at a point where we need rent controls until supply catches up with demand.

No need to worry mumsnetters...there won't be any landlords left soon. And your children will be living with you until they are able to buy.

Landlords have provided a much needed service. They don't typically make 'millions' as some have remarked. Many aren't rich at all. And now the majority are exiting the market, partly because they've been absolutely vilified for years.

The figures don't stack up to continually berate landlords. The housing crisis can be blamed on mass immigration over the last decade and a government that never plans for the future, only over looking at the next 4 years. Does anyone realise how many have come over just from Hong Kong alone in the last 2 years???

Supply can't catch up with demand. Angela Rayner said she wants three million homes built for starters.

Agree with your first two paras
However
Lets not forget the housing crisis in part is down to a larger number of single person households and divorced couples who need two properties both with room for the kids.

Does anyone realise how many have come over just from Hong Kong alone in the last 2 years???

c 140k. This will not have had a significant effect on the housing crisis, which, in any case has been going on a lot longer than the decade you describe.
The problem is definitely not “mass migration”. Any country with a functioning housing system will plan for and manage population fluctuation. The problem, in a nutshell, is that housing has been treated as a money making enterprise with clear winners and losers, and leaving an essential need to the market was never going to be sustainable in the long term.
I doubt you’ll find many people agreeing with your view of landlords as maligned providers of a public service. The amount of money going to them in the form of housing related benefits could pay for so much social housing, a long lasting public asset and ultimately much needed source of income for cash-strapped local authorities. It’s morally obscene that such vast amounts of our money should be funnelled towards a second tier benefits system for the wealthy and better off. Let’s not forget that despite their incredible hard work and terrible treatment, those poor landlords end up with properties bought for them by the taxpayer!

@ChallahPlaiter - I think you're quoting a figure from the 2021 census? I'm talking about the number in the last 2-3 years since then, which a friend in the know has reported to be close to 1 million. We will never know true facts as things are hidden, but I live in a random suburban northern town nowhere near a city and the sheer number to arrive in my child's school in the last 2 years is telling. And this is just the tip of the iceberg of the immigration that has taken place over the last decade. Why do people refuse to accept this is one of the primary factors? A huge proportion of nurses at my local hospital are employed from outside the UK each year. Granted we need nurses, and I'm grateful for them, but each takes up yet another house.

You can't continue to allow mass immigration without creating infrastructure and services to match it. It's not rocket science.

Let’s not forget that despite their incredible hard work and terrible treatment, those poor landlords end up with properties bought for them by the taxpayer!

What are you talking about. Landlords buy a house out of their own money.

Then why didn't Labour do anything about it?

And they're only proposing to tinker with it now

I answered this 30 seconds after posting the above post

People still live in them. They are still homes.

As I said above, the issue isn't people renting houses for full time residential use, it's the people using them as holiday homes and owning second homes. AND all the empty ones being held as investments or people just not doing anything with them.

You can't continue to allow mass immigration without creating infrastructure and services to match it. It's not rocket science

Absolutely true. But we don't need to start concreting over the countryside until we've reallocated the housing we have. 1.5 million properties that could be reallocated is a lot, and then there's other land and properties that could be turned into quality housing.

I also hope that any new housing will be subject to much stricter building regulations on quality but I won't hold my breath.

I did presume that labour would be keen to get council housing on the agenda. They were always the party for the people. I'm guessing it's all champagne socialists these days in ivory towers. Utter naivety on my part.

A building program would provide jobs and properties should be based on the good-sized, solid built council housing from the 50s ( not the prefabs) with gardens. 1,2, and 3 bed houses, flats, and bungalows not the stupidly tiny and impractical new builds being thrown up at quarter of a million minimum each round here. .

Agree although I’d prefer housing more like our Victorian terraces as they are a more efficient use of land

Some people can’t afford to buy and it’s not entirely the rental trap BTW. If all the landlords sold up, where would those people live?

No my figure was the number of people migrating from Hong Kong to the UK between 2021-2024 (to date).

It’s fairly evident, when you look at housing policy from, say, the Housing Acts of 1980 (introduced right to buy) and 1988 (deregulation of private rental system) and subsequent failure to address the nation’s housing needs, that immigration is a relatively insignificant factor in the current crisis.

What am I talking about? It’s all there in my post! Some landlords rent to people who claim housing related benefits (as is their right) and those benefits pay off any outstanding mortgage the landlord has.

Honestly it’s really not rocket science. The transfer of public money into private pockets is, as I say, morally indefensible, particularly when you think about the numbers of former council homes now rented out in the private sector.

Is it less immoral to refuse tenants on housing benefits then. Would that be acceptable to you?

It’s worth noting and I’m sure you know just asking that landlords cannot refuse anyone on housing benefit
Maybe others aren’t aware though @ChallahPlaiter

Really, that’s a very silly thing to say.

Fair point, as long as not 2 up 2 down as the model...ie tiny