Lots of Landlords are selling up!!

[PassingStranger]

Where is everyone going to live who can't afford to buy?

Alot of landlords are selling. Can't be bothered with all the hassle now.
People aren't paying rent and also trashing houses when they do and costing the owners lots of money to put things right.
On TikTok people are being told to trash houses. [Society gone downhill]

I know there are good tenants, but there are alot of bad ones. Family member works for estate agent and says there are more bad tenants than landlords.

You can trash a house and walk away. Nobody ever gets done for criminal damage on private rents.
There is no register of bad tenants legally allowed either. It's all left to the landlord to sort out at their expense.

Where is all the housing going to come from?
The government donthave enough.
People who are trashing houses and not paying rent are actually spoiling it for everyone..
Alot of lls are selling up now.

Agree
We’ve kept rents low historically for good tenants but when push comes to shove
if they move things go pear shaped and the place is a mess or they stop paying rent before they go
and
if you decide to sell up they again forget the years of low rent and refuse to move voluntarily.

This is it.

I remember viewing a property once and the previous tenants had ripped the radiators off the wall. They'd left one in a cupboard (?) and it was fairly new, so Lord knows why.

I can't imagine most/all of the landlords will be selling up. It is still a lucrative income source where some/all of the mortgage is paid by somebody else. Over time the mortgage is paid off or reduces in comparison to the rent received and as well as having a valuable assessment the rent leaves some profit above the mortgage. In general the value of the house goes up quicker than interest on savings in the bank. Nothing wrong with this. It's a business which provides for a need like any other successful business. There should be more social housing but unless society is going to provide this there houses are needed. Of course there are disadvantages and risks like bad tenants. There are also bad landlords who expect the rent without maintaining the property.

As are the corner shop, the florist, the nurseries, the car dealership, probably the company who you work for. Those businesses, providing a service or a product, and expecting a return on investments, should all of them do it for free?

It’s a case of tough. I will probably make a loss on my own house if I decide to sell.
If it helps people actually buy their own property then it’s not for nought.

🤣🤣it's not a human right at all.

I know a few people who rent by choice. They don’t want the hassle of maintaining the property. They like to move every few years and try somewhere new. They don’t want the responsibility of being tied to a property.

the Uk is quite an odd country in that culturally we are very attached on to owner occupation. Many other countries (for some reason Germany springs to mind but I could be wrong), renting is seen more as the norm.

If a landlord sells a house, someone else buys it. That person will either live in it, or rent it out themselves. So there won’t be a reduction in housing availability unless purchasers leave properties empty.

I think we are going to have to start living in multigenerational houses. I can't see enough housing being built as so much wealth is tied up in property. If it loses its value then who makes up the shortfall on care home fees etc.

Erm…

United Nations Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which includes 'the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for himself and his family, including adequate ... housing'.

Dunno. You won't get your deposit back though! I moved out of a furnished studio flat last year, walked past it a couple of months later and whoever had moved in had dumped the wardrobe and bedside table outside. They were brand new when I moved in and I'd lived there less than a year. They were absolutely ruined by the rain. Made me feel both sad and angry, it was such a waste of good furniture. (IKEA's finest, but it was good sturdy stuff.)

If you sell you it just means someone else will buy it. If you really want to put it the man - bulldoze your rental. Then no-one can live there.

And if the houses do shift in to private ownership and out of the rental market then the cost of rent will increase as supply drops.

That was very common 150 years ago remember. It feel out of favour in the last century but it was the norm. I have traced my 4 bed terraced house back to Victorian times and there were 10 people living here at one time.

You are indeed right, there isnt the "must buy a house" culture in Germany we have here and people seem to manage ok

Not surprised. Being a landlord can be a total headache. Hopefully house prices will fall to sensible levels.

the Uk is quite an odd country in that culturally we are very attached on to owner occupation. Many other countries (for some reason Germany springs to mind but I could be wrong), renting is seen more as the norm.

Renting is seen as a practical and acceptable option in Germany because renters have far more rights there than those in the UK - security of tenure, right to privacy, rent controls in areas that are in demand etc.

You would want to do that because even if your profit is small your money is 'stored' in property that traditionally has a good return.

Bricks and mortar can be a great alternative to banks etc for storing money.

A million dwellings in England and Wales were unoccupied at the last census, perhaps we could start with those?

By all means, but we’re talking about landlords on this thread

But for the most part, it's not helping others buy property.
You still need to have the finances to raise a deposit, the secure job to get a mortgage, the right credit rating, to be able to WANT to buy a house and stay in one place for a long time.
Landlords selling up is not rectifying those issues. Rental properties are needed. The government is not providing them, and they are actively lowering the amount of others that will.

Honestly, just think through the logistics. Think of someone you may know, however vaguely who rents. The market has dropped by 10%. Their landlord decides to sell.
Do you think that 10%, which is a HUGE drop for the market, gives that person the ability to buy now? Do they have the deposit, the ability, the want to do so? If not, what do they do? As all of the other similar priced rental properties are gone too. Who is helping them? The council? The HA? Or are they having to go to the private landlords with larger housing stock. But there are now 50 applicants for every 3 bedroom house, what do you think they are going to do with the rent? This is no longer an individual landlord with a heart who is a sucker for a sob story, this is a corporate company. They want a good profit, and the best tenants. SO prices are high, criteria is high, and lots of people are missing out.

This isn't good for anyone,

good. the area I live in has all but been destroyed by BTL and unscrupulous landlords who let their properties go to rack and ruin. Tenants who do not know their rights are exploited by these vultures who do not carry out repairs, collect the rent in cash and evade income tax. I live next door to a property like this and it has made my life hell, council is meant to be taking legal action against the landlord (who lives in luxury in another city, I have tracked him down online) to compel him to do the repairs. Council have informed me that he has several other properties all in a bad state, I hope he sells up.

You say this like its a bad thing...

Sometimes, the bigger picture means sacrificing your privilege.
I own my house, would it be in negative equity? Quite possibly.
I will therefore remain where I am.

We make no money from our rental property, with the increase in mortgage rates and then most recent tenants are illegally subletting and have trashed the place (constant stuff needing fixing in the year they've been there and now we have realised what they are up to). We cant afford to sell it right now as have to spend so much fixing it up so we are hoping we have better luck with the next tenants.

Friends of mine are left with 10s of thousands of pounds debt due to tenants using property as a drug den, the agent was arrested also for being part of it. They had bypassed the electricity meter somehow and its thousands of pounds to get it all reconnected. Its unbelievable. They had been trying to evict them due to non payment of rent so didnt even have the rent to be able to put towards the costs.

Not all landlords are dickheads just out to make loads of money, we bought a small property to try and get enough cash to top up FILs care home fees to keep him somewhere decent. It was all good before mortgage rates went up but if we had left it on variable rate then the difference between mortgage and rent was £24, so not really enough to pay for buildings insurance even. Luckily we could get a fixed rate for slightly less but the lenders are so strict now we struggled to get one. I guess people who own the property outright are making a decent amount.

We’ve got 5 rental flats/houses rented out and are not selling (yet). We keep them because autistic DS may not be able to hold down a job/live independently so it’s an occupation and potential income source for him. There’s virtually no money in it for DH and me, even though mortgages are almost all paid off.

The only way to avoid bad tenants (and it’s never risk-free) is to vet the fuck out of everyone who applies. No pets, no benefits, no children, etc. It has never prevented us from getting tenants - on the contrary, we’ve always had scores to choose from, and they tend to stay long-term because we don’t need to increase the rents regularly to cover our debt.

I’ve never had a trashed house (so far) but we did have one idiot couple who agreed to “no pets” then sneaked in with two massive dogs. The entire estate is leasehold tenure and there is a “no pets” covenant to protect its communal green areas, so we very quickly got an irate call from the neighbours. The tenants were gone within a week, but what a massive waste of time and money for all involved. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I honestly don’t know where “less desirable” tenants are meant to live. The financial incentives may be much less, but there are still many multiples more tenants than houses ime.