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.

I totally disagree.

Ugh. Do you demand to know that about everything or just when poor folks would benefit?

And why is it always 'all this' and 'all these' with people like you. Just gross.

This is the dumbest idea I’ve heard for a long time.

When lived abroad for a while we rented out our house, I'm not sure what the advantages of it standing empty for two years would have been?
Also what the advantages of switching more private landlords from longer term renters to airb&bs are meant to be?

A terrible idea, for the simple reason that there are many thousands - possibly millions - of people for whom private renting is the only option - not just university and college students but also vast numbers of people who move about for work and are either not in a position to buy or don't want to buy, because in two, three or four years time, they'll be moving again and will have to sell up. The days of finding or even wanting a job in the factory along the road are long gone. Single or divorced people. People without children. People on temporary contracts. The constraints on who would qualify for social housing - of which I agree there should be much more for the people who do want it - mean that single people wanting reasonably short term accommodation would be out on the streets. Lots of EU countries manage this (like so much else) better than we do.

A friend works in social housing for the council. Her department try to buy empty homes due to the owner going into a nursing home or dying.

Very few inheritors want to sell. They've got it in their head that it will be a nice place to visit or it will continue to appreciate until they want the money in retirement.

If in a nursing home with Alzheimer's they haven't got the mental capacity to sell and there's no POA in place so the property sits there empty. That can go on for years.

New build well you have to find the land which must be within the LDP you can't build anywhere. Then highways, waterboard, gas, electric companies must be consulted. Planning need to look at flood plain risk. Thats two years gone.

Btw housing association must make a profit to enable them to continue to buy/build property for other families.

Families that separate/divorce suddenly need two properties with extra bedrooms in each property for stays. Perhaps we should ban people from divorcing, ban single parenting.

My DS paid £155 PW for one room, shower, shared kitchen for seven students back in 2019. That same room this year is £280 PW. The landlord? Unite Union. DS calculated his halls and the one next door brought in £8 million in 2019. Imagine the unions income this year. There's no way Unite can hand over the halls for HMOs. The money raised is for union coffers for union members.

Ok so my questions for you

1. how will housing associations/councils afford to buy these properties from the current landlords there are currently approx 5million rental properties in England. So you are talking literally billions of £
2. would HA/councils allow you to have a house larger than they say you need? So you currently rent privately a 3 bed, but the HA says you only need a one bed as you are in your own. Why should your choice be taken away from you? And no HAs won’t allow you to rent larger properties than they think you need
3. then there’s all the income people rely on lots of rental properties are accidental landlords or one or two properties. Ok they may get some funds when they sell, but what about all the people linked, so trades doings work, painters decorators, new carpets etc, all dealt with by private landlords but won’t be required by HA ( who expect you to carpet properties)
4. how would it work if you could only rent from HA/councils if you want to live somewhere for a few months either for work or perhaps to help family out?

it doesn’t stack up

We have also needed short term rents for work, not everyone wants to live longer term in one place. We need more flexibility than that.

So government grants don't fund housing associations at all?

People will bend themselves out of shape to deny the contribution that tax payers make to social housing and HAs. Madness.

The solution has to be both region led and be integrated with industries and business needs.

There's no point Cornwall County Council acquiring all the second homes and privately rented property - and all the expense the maintenance of those properties require if there's no work for all the new social housing renters, in addition to losing huge amounts of tax revenue.

We don't have anything like enough houses. Vacancy rates for residential housing sit at 5%. That's far too little for a functioning housing market to give people what they need.

Exactly this. There's a whole cross section of young and not-so-young professionals who move every few years and who want decent furnished rented accommodation. Who's going to furnish the Housing Association houses? Or give short term lets?

It's a hard no from me to communism, but thanks.

Sorry to break this to you gently…. BUT this has already been tried. Lots of times. In many countries. Where private ownership is discouraged and there is lots of social housing, etc…

YES- it’s called communism and it never leads to anything good. Because once you start, where do you stop.

There are up to 1500 long term empty homes in my borough alone.

I have no idea how it could work or what would happen, but I agree there should be a limit on how many houses someone can own. I also think HMOs converted from 2/3/4 bed houses into 6/7 bedroom houses should be banned. The same goes for Air b&bs in residential areas, perfectly good homes for families just being wasted for someone’s passive income.
I realise banning all this would be difficult and no, I have no idea how, but I still think there should be strict laws around this greed!

Do you live in Bristol? You still haven't answered about Bristol.

No, why do you keep banging on about Bristol? I used to visit the uni a lot back in my late teens...

I’m sorry but you live in la la land … where exactly is social housing going to get the money to buy private rentals off landlords?

I really think the UK needs to teach economics in schools to all kids so people can understand how economies work. There is not a money tree growing anywhere in the UK.

Thats fine if you want to live in a socialist or communist society … but go live in one. So many people in the UK seem to think we can have it all … but we can’t there is always something that has to give.

Bit nasty

Before you do that, can you make sure no foreigner who does not live in the UK or has no ties do not buy a property for investment?

My first thought!

And what if a lot of these houses are poorly maintained? It would cost the HA or councils a fortune to buy and then repair them.

How would housing be allocated if everyone was charged the same market rent? How would it be fair for someone to live in a show home 5 bed with garage in the suburbs and someone else get allocated a falling apart shack in the middle of nowhere and a third a tenth story flat in a dodgy inner city area?

If even far more left leaning, socialist countries than us haven't attempted something it tends to suggest its complete pie in the sky and unfeasible.

Something like a rent cap and/or limit on air bnbs, even higher second home council taxes, etc, would be a more logical step.

don’t be a twat.
What about young people with jobs who aren’t eligible for state help? Where do they live? For example my son on an apprenticeship who needs a roof over his head in a town away from our home.

So you just want to swap greedy landlords with greedy multi millionaire business owners? (Who will be mates with Farage et al and will have off shore bank accounts avoiding tax)

Sounds like a great idea!

Also, what about those renters who rents properties done to higher standards and pay rents accordingly. Will they need to accommodate to whatever they are given by the HA or can they pick?