To think we should ban private renting?

[honeyrosesandwich]

AIBU to think this is a great idea?

Imagine if private renting was banned. All rented houses were done under social housing / housing association. There are already over 4.5 million houses rented under social housing, so it's on a huge scale already.

It would mean rent would be affordable for everyone and effectively help the cost of living prices. I live in a housing association house and my 2 bed is £520 a month. My brother, who private rents, pays £1100 for a 2 bed in the same area.

Repairs for my house are done by the HA's own company. I just put in a request online for it.

People that want to stay in their privately rented home will be free to do so but they put a ban on any new tenancies. The owners will have the opportuntiy to sell the house to social housing or keep it for themselves, but not rent it out further. If sold, the tenant will be allowed to stay.

I've been thinking about this randomly today and haven't come up with any negatives so far. Is it bad to monopolise housing? Well, there are already certain housing associations which own hundreds of thousands of houses.

But to be fair, they do in other countries, like Germany.

What about people who want to pay more for a nicer rental? Must we all have the same standard of accommodation unless we are in a position to buy?

Because other people without secure homes need homes more than you need somewhere "lovely".

So you don’t mind housing association is making a profit

But you do mind that some individuals who are often very nice people are making a profit - or maybe not making a profit because circumstances led them to rent their house out and they are just getting the mortgage paid. You really object to that for some reason. Which you don’t want to share with us.

I don’t get it

😂

I reckon they'll tax everyone but the very rich out of private home ownership and corporations will buy the houses and rent them out with some tax going to the government who will allow the parasitic corps access to our housing market.

I don’t disagree with other people need secure homes - so better solutions needed for that but banning private renting is bonkers.

It’s part of our free market economy to be able to make use of an asset you own.

I can buy a bunch of cars and charge people to rent them as a business.

If I bought a penthouse with a Thames view in London and decided to live in it six months of the year and rent it out as a holiday rental the other six months that’s another form of business.

If the system is failing at different points and people are suffering - you fix those points. Tackle at local and regional levels to improve housing stock, beef up regulations and protections, create more incentives for businesses to establish themselves away from big cities so that workers can live in more affordable areas and have lower commutes.

Some sort of coup

"It’s part of our free market economy to be able to make use of an asset you own."

Maybe that's the problem

It's a very British idea to think you need ownership to have security. In Germany for example less than half the population owns their house but rental regulations are stricter in ways that many wouldn't be able to imagine. They can't just raise my rent, they can't kick me out if they sell, I have first right to buy if they do want to sell too, even if it were sold to someone else the new owner can't just kick me out because they bought it because they knew I was in there when they bought it. I don't feel more insecure as a renter in Germany than as a house owner.

Of course, none of that solves the actual problem: lack of housing stock.

And funnily, there laws and regulations and permits can actually change and this is something the government should be able to do - unlike buying all the housing stock!

That's an argument for not letting people live in houses that are not larger than they need or against 2nd home ownership, but the internal standard of flats being lower for everyone doesn't open up more housing for those who need it. For that we simply need to build more housing where it's needed.

I think there's a misunderstanding

If private rental is banned, then we HAVE to give accommodation to anyone who wants and need one.

We are not going to make everyone homeless are we?

So professional, students, everyone will have the same right and will have council accommodation as needed.

Too many variables for this to work.

We have enough houses. We don't need to take up more space where we could have nice things like parks and other community buildings to build sufficient houses to meet current need.

Are you a communist OP? Sounds similar to what Chairman Mao did.

Whilst I understand your point there are also people like ourselves who for various reasons can’t buy in chosen areas but have pretty high income and can rent a pretty nice house and don’t necessarily want a housing association house- so I would somewhat be peeved to be forced into that arrangement

And what magic tree is the government going to use to buy these houses?

Tou do realise that not all renters are poor wannabe homeowners? Some want to rent, need to rent. Short term work contracts and the like. There isn't a housing crisis. There's a legislative crisis. The government should never have gotten involved in people's private housing decisions. If I wanted to rent a garden shed, that should be no business of the government.

People will be able to buy more quickly with cheaper rent. Especially the houses that people have had to sell off now they can't use them to make money off of poorer people.

Doesn’t the government pay the shortfall to these housing bodies as the rent wouldn’t be high enough to make a profit.
There definitely needs to more social housing, there is also a lot of people who would not be eligible for housing assistance, controlled rent payments and higher standards from both landlords and tenants, proper penalties for break the contract would be better.

Have you heard of section 24 OP?
For this and other reasons, it’s become much harder for landlords to make money out of their properties over the past few years. So private rents went up and the money spent on repairs/maintenance went down. The government did this to penalise landlords, but it actually just transferred the costs to the renter.

We don’t need to ban private landlords. The government could make regulation and tax changes which would then enable private landlords to reduce rents, but that will never happen. It’s not a politically acceptable thing to do as it would be perceived to be ‘helping’ landlords.

So, unless we can build more affordable homes, we’re stuck in a spiral of ever increasing costs for landlords, which leads to rent increases for tenants.

Not sure where the housing associations would get the money from to buy millions of houses though!

What happens if you stop paying rent? Why do people become landlords, is there any money in it?

Exactly, people needing social housing go on a list or are prioritised according to urgent need. People moving for work etc would never get a property quickly enough.

I've moved a lot and I mean a lot in my life. Half of those have been for jobs up and down the country. Without a rental market being free, I'd have not been able to take the job on and further my career.
While I think yes, there needs to be help for those waiting for affordable homes and sometime landlords take the pee with their prices, I wouldn't want the freedom to go.

but maybe they don't WANT to buy? Especially now they are entitled to social housing, why would they?