Half on my monthly income goes just on rent. Unsustainable?

[UnsustainableMum]

Single mum. We live in the south east. 3 bed as two children of different sexes. Half of my monthly income now goes on rent at £1600 per month. The rents just keep rising along with every thing else. Surely rents can’t rise anymore?!

There will be even less decent ones when the private equity companies buy up all the portfolios. My brother's whole block of flats (all a rental portfolio of 1 landlord in northern City) has just been sold by their landlord to a private equity firm. They have just had their rent put up "to market rate" by the new owners. He was previously paying £700 per month for a 2 bed flat on outskirts of city. They have been there years and the rent didn't go up. The tenants below them have been there longer and we're paying £600. New owners have raised the rent to £1250 per month for every flat, plus introduced a very expensive maintenance charge to cover window cleaning and general maintenance of the block (so far it seems to include painting the communal hallway with cheap trade white paint and someone hoovering the communal hallway every week, gardener fortnightly). The old landlord left window cleaning up to the tennants and asked hallways were kept tidy and someone popped over once a month to tidy the communal garden and hoover. They have also been notified that the rent will go up every year in line with the market rents. There has been a full survey of the roof, electrics and boilers and there will be a scheme of works taking place including replacement of all boilers, doors and windows in the flats. The car park for the flats will also be part of a permit scheme and each flat will be allowed to purchase 2 permits only. So far the private equity company seems to be stripping the assets and charging more.

Luckily my brother is buying a house so is only going to be there a little longer but what was once more affordable has become very expensive housing.

Yes it is…..there’s been loads of new build council houses in past 3 years….I mean I wouldn’t particularly want to live in those areas myself…..but they are ok …..the new builds my nieces have got are lovely….decent sized gardens….electric charging points for cars in the front gardens…..my DS was on the list a year…..he moved in 3 months ago …he got a paint package ( paint, rollers, sandpaper etc) ….he got to choose from 3 laminates then they put the right thru ( cheaper end stuff but ok)….and he got a white good package….. his ex ( and mother of his child) has been on list for a bigger home for 13 months….she has just been offered a 3 bed ( currently in a 2 bed) …..the house my DD was in was on a private estate ….they had a percentage of social housing ….it was lovely….

@Cat1504 encourage them to keep hold of them!! It's really rare to be offered a property due to overcrowding (rather than homelessness) these days, and I don't think I've seen a white goods package (from the housing rather than from a charity) for twenty years!

@Icecreamandcoffee I'm glad your brother is in a position to move. The situation you describe is a major reason why things went so crazy in London - whilst London has always been expensive it was manageable thirty years ago and the increases were so disproportionate. Swathes of London are owned by foreign investors now, and Manchester is going a similar way. My DH works in a related field and tells me that the newer residential blocks are designed from the start for the market of foreign investors buying and letting the properties.
Nb not sure of a better way to word it, the issue isn't that the investors are non British, it's that the companies aren't based in the UK, so the interest is purely commercial and theres lots of dodgy stuff going on re taxes and where the money comes from in the first place.

@Hibernatingtilspring it really is a problem. The company my brother's block belongs to is American. The biggest issue is the fact that these big private equity firms know the loopholes and have the financial capital and ability to skirt as close to the law as possible without breaking it. A local authority taking someone like Blackrock to court over rent rises is going to struggle - Blackrock have the money for the best law team - it's a company expense to the private equity firm. The purpose of private equity is to extract as much value as possible from assets not maintain them and be ethical. Sadly the government is creating an environment where a lot of our rental stock will end up in the hands of private equity, banks and for profit businesses that will be a lot worse and a lot less moral than the current landlord system. The we buy any house type companies will sell on to the highest bidder and it's no secret that private equity and investment arms of banks are all eyeing up the private rental market.

Also a single parent of two with no contribution from my children's father (he is back to studying at 55). My rent on 3-bed ex council terrace is £2200, and bills, food, after school childcare/clubs and commute take my just basic survival costs to £4300. I earn more than that so keeping afloat but it feels like there's no light ahead at all - and my salary comes with stupid hours, working most weekends and generally never being able to leave work at work.

I think there needs to be a law regarding non resident parents contributing to their child.

Sadly this is correct
We had a flat we rented - had not increased rent for 5 years as we had good tenants
When they left we sold it - was just not worth the hassle

There'ss a child maintenance system. But can be got around not working self employed etc . Any New law wont change that

Landlords are being squeezed by changes to taxation - in some cases up to and over 100% of their available income. They are also not charities - I thought this was obvious. Two things can be true at the same time.

The problem is that the state has handed off its responsibility to house people to the private rental sector - and suddenly everyone expects private landlords to act like social housing providers. Why should they? The private rental sector is just that - private. Why should there be a limit to how much they can charge? Should any private business have caps put on its profitability? Should the owner of an AirBnB property have to rent their property out a rate decided by the government? Why?

If you want there to be housing for all at affordable prices, that can only be achieved via an oversupply of properties or a drop in demand. And that is entirely within the government's control.

Didn’t it come into law this week, before you posted? So it was too late for landlords to raise the rents, thus avoiding lengthy disputes. I think you’ve got muddled up here with your argument.

Rent control is the sort of thing that sounds like a really good idea. The reality is that, in a private market, it interferes with the supply of goods. Why would a landlord agree to limit the profit he can make on something?

I know it sounds really distasteful to talk about profit in this way but people have to understand that the private rental sector is no different, in principle, to any other business. If you don't want housing to be treated like a commodity you have to provide mass state housing that everyone has access to.

Its because we elect governments that prioritise the needs of home owning pensioners and landlords

It received royal assent but isn't active yet. Expected to be from next April.

That’s a good rent for a 3bed.

My 1 bed is £1,500.

10 mins away isn't far

I remember a family relative telling me that he paid half his monthly salary for rent in Ealing and that was back in the 80s. He was in the CS but I don't know what grade ( although not that high).

@RubySquid10 minutes by car can really be quite far! Too far to walk and then get to work it seems.

I'm not sure why you're asking me? I didn't say OP should get a mortgage.

Surely you’re on UC which is covering most of it if you’re a single parent? Are you claiming everything you’re entitled to claim?

If the OP lives rurally then it's probably the closest school. Anyone in the surrounding villages here generally has that distance to get to school and it's not particularly rural

The answer is to provide social housing. About a third of people used to live in social housing, Its now down to 15% and heavily weighted to older people. Providing that option for families keeps their costs low and private rents become more competitive

Who gets to define "excessive" ?

Would you like a third party to have the power to declare your income "excessive," and reduce it?

@RubySquidbut that’s the point the op is living somewhere she has to drive to school which is increasing her fuel costs, plus every hobby, activity, play date her DC attend.

Living rurally can increase your day to day costs. Where I live it’s quicker to walk to the schools than drive. Certainly less stressful!

Would we accept it if the big supermarkets got together and decided to all increase their costs as much as they thought they could get away with? Or would that be price fixing?
So why do we have letting agents ring up landlords telling them to increase their prices because they can get away with charging more?

If landlords are being so heavily taxed they could try going and getting jobs.

@No5ChalksRoad they already do, I'm public sector!