Average rent what is going on!

[Rosemariex]

2 bed terraces £950 to over £1000 pm! These aren't even in great areas and are nothing special at all inside nowhere to park car etc

how are people affording this? We have seen a lovely house in the perfect area but it is £1200 pm

this is Manchester where im looking is it as expensive as this in other areas?? (besides London)

or is this just the norm now and i need to realise im going to have to pay at least £1000

It does but where would all the private renters live if there weren't landlords? Unless you overhaul the whole system, rental property is always needed.

It's not like council housing is in amazing condition or repairs done quickly there.

There’s a 2 bedroom house about 3 miles away; I’m not joking when I say the estate is an absolute dump, you couldn’t pay me to live in it, it’s total squalor. £1300 a month.

Shelter have pressured the govt to squeeze landlords who are seen as the devil.
The changes in tax and legislation have made many sell up.
There is therefore a shortage of rental properties.
Interest rates have increased landlords need to make that money back.
Hence prices have gone up.

Maybe the banks should just rent directly like the whole btl mortgage you could do it kinda like a mortgage where the “tenant” is responsible for repairs in exchange for a “low” rent.

That's why people should be allowed to own one or two properties to rent out, but not 10+

This is something that the government could introduce relatively quickly as new properties come onto the market.

But to be honest, ultimately the whole system could (and should) be overhauled.

Every single person should be able to get one house in which they can live, as a minimum. Until we are in that position, no one should be able to buy 10 properties to let out at extortionate prices.

As for where private renters would live if there weren't landlords - well if there were fewer greedy landlords buying up property, housing would become cheaper, and more private renters would become property owners.

You would have more people each owning one or two properties, rather than a few wealthy landlords each owning lots.

These things are connected and feed into each other.

The bottom line is that we have a shortage of housing in this country. We are not building enough new houses to keep up with population growth.

When demand exceeds supply, prices go up.

I was renting a house in south london until recently for £1500 a month. Nothing special, 3 bed Edwardian in a crappy area, needed updating.

It's re let now for £1850! I looked at the listing and it was exactly as we'd left it so no improvements made.

I couldn't have afforded it at that price.

We have the same issue up north. 3 bedroom houses have gone from 450 (small terraced house no garden) to 625. They are shocking and full of damp, landlords refusing to do repairs and some other houses are up to 750-800 and they are okay areas but very small gardens and not great areas. Local housing allowance up this way is 450-495 for a 3 bedroom house. 2 bedrooms have gone from 400 to 550 it’s shocking especially with all the section 21s. It’s really a monopoly market for landlords at the moment

Tax changes (s24) has ruined BTL for small landlords and their tenants.
It's virtually impossible to make a profit. As and when my properties become empty I will sell. If the population increases, as it has been in recent years, there will be more competition for the rental properties which are left. Well done George Osborne 👏

I sold my accidental rental in 2021 because it was an absolute pain in the arse and was going to get worse with all the new regulations/tax. Best thing I did - no longer have sleepless nights

We'll sell as soon as it won't screw over our tenant. It's just too hard to be a landlord (as it should be, you should have high expectations) and still make it financially worthwhile.

Yep! My tenants had split up so wanted to go. Decided it was right time and sold to a buy to let company - they were going to renovate and will prob make a fortune but I would prefer not to have the hassle as have plenty of that with day to day life!!

There may be an overall shortage, but this is compounded by so many of the properties available being owned by greedy landlords who own multiple properties and can push up rental rates.

There really should be a limit on the number of properties a single person can own to let out for their own gain.

Unfortunately, I think rents are only going to keep going up.

The population keeps increasing at an alarming rate (more than 1 million visas issued last year + illegals).

House building is continually constrained by green belt laws, NIMBYs and land banking.

Private landlords being targeted by the government due to lobbying by L&G, etc, who refused to invest in large housing developments because they 'couldn't compete' (wanted to charge a lot more) with private landlords.

There definitely shouldn't be a limit to how many btl someone can buy. The worst landlords are the ones with just one house. The best landlord I ever had owned half the city. Only one is about 20 landlords who ever fixed anything!

My sentiments exactly. George Osborne screwed LLs over a right treat.

I tried selling a one bed property recently my tenants had moved out and I had come to the end of my fixed mortgage deal. It was in a cheap area, in great condition- didn't need anything doing to it and would have made an ideal starter home for a young couple with no children.

I wanted to sell it to owner occupiers. But no I only had offers from other landlords. No-one else was interested. In the end I kept it as the LL's offers were £30k under asking price on a property which was less than £100k.

So now I still have it on a fixed interest rate. I'll try selling it again if my tenants move out.

As for the pp mentioning a free house ahem no. I don't own any of the properties and never will. I've just used some of my money and the bank 's money to make money.

Pre George Osborne anyone could have got a self cert. mortgage providing you had a decent credit rating and could stump up the deposit on a property.

Rents in my pretty poor, run down northern city suburb have absolutely rocketed. We had to offer 25% higher rent to secure a cold, damp, mouldy house that doesn't have enough bedrooms (need a three but have a two). It's further away from the dc's school and nursery. If we rented the same house now we'd probably be paying about £900 a month, £150 more than we currently are. We've lived in this area all our lives- can't afford to save a deposit with rents this high, can't afford to buy a house anyway as the properties have shot up and if the rent goes up here then we're priced out of the area and will have to look at uprooting the dc's lives to find somewhere (even worse) and cheaper.

It's an absolute shit show. I think about it everyday.

Government should bring in a policy for renters 'right to buy' by underwriting the deposit and taking proof of rent payment as affordability.

Not in London. Just signing a contract on a 1-up-1-down with each room less than 3msq for £1200… Cheapest place in the area. There is a garden though! :s

We are not building enough new houses to keep up with population growth.

Isn't the main driver of population growth people living longer?

Personally I think anyone should be able to self cert still if they prove they have been paying rent over and above the mortgage for at least 2 years , have a clean(ish) credit record and can reference their rent payments and have at least 15% deposit.

An awful lot of self employed /freelance/contractors in particular who earn in 'chunks' find it impossible to get mortgages even though they earn well and then end up in expensive rentals. Especially once you hit 45 or so. We are in this position .

The biggest landlords are John Lewis and northern Rock now they are buying up a lot of properties. Hampton last year said 28000 landlords are leaving the profession each month as I will be when my tenants leave one by one. It’s an absolute joke and no the more landlords that sell up won’t make properties cheaper it will make tenancies more expensive and less choice

Re self cert the majority of defaults were not these types they were employees

Before any clamp down on BTL landlords, probably more useful to have a look at Air BnB; people with second homes which aren't lived in all the time; huge increase in student numbers meaning that houses are only occupied part of the year. Those all in various ways contribute to a lack of availability of properties for people to live in all year round.