An income of 30 times the monthly rent or a guarantor?

[KatyMac]

This doesn't seem achievable! Particularly for young people or people on benefits

I'm sure "back in the day" I didn't have this to contend with!

Is there a work around?

Where did this come from? Find somewhere else.

I am sure this is pretty standard. We rented recently for a year whilst looking for a house, the rental was £2200 a month and we had to prove we earnt over £65k which is 30 times the monthly rental.

Pretty standard. I'm a guarantor for exh!

Sounds about right where I am.
Eg a young person renting a room in a house share for 500/ a single person renting a whole flat for 1200 pcm those are the salaries that would allow that to be affordable

We had this problem with my DS. He’s a single man earning 25k per year and the estate agents said we’d need to be a guarantor. My DS was deeply unhappy in his shared house at the time and it was the start of covid so we worried he’d lose his job. He stuck it for another year and then fortunately I was in a position to buy a flat and rent it to him.

30x is normal and at the moment I think it's a sensible measure of affordability.

I'm a single 50+, and I've just taken on a property where I scrape through the 30x requirement. I had to sit down with a very detailed budget and soul search over whether I could afford all the other bills as well and where I could make some cuts, and whether I could live with a reduced disposable income, or whether I should go and find something else. 30x seems to be the edge of affordability. I made my choice I'd rather have this home than more money at the end of the month.

But people who don't make 30x the rent of the cheapest accommodation are stuffed.

Sounds like what was required of me last time I rented - 15 years ago.

or find a landlord who doesn’t want it.

op, this has been a common thing for a long time. I think it’s quite reasonable if you want to rent a property at 800 a month then you need to earn 24k a year, in total for the tenants. 800 is about 50 percent of take home on 24k. So it makes sense. If uou start spending more than half your income on rent, then you will struggle financially. As such if you want to spend more than 50% then you need a guarantor.

I think it’s fair enough really. £800 times 30 is £24k which doesn’t sound unreasonable for that amount per month. Flat shares, smaller flats or cheaper locations are all options.

They are about a grand below the limit for the sort of flats they want/are available on lasy years income - this year has been better but wont get input until May

Both work from home, so they need a 2 bed even if it's a box room or a largeish 1 bed (so they can fit 2 desks in different rooms)

We cant guarantor as we don't earn enough

How much are the rents in the area they want and give much are their salaries. Could they look at one bedroom properties in cheaper areas as they WFH?

Why are they basing it on last year's income, unless they are both self-employed? I've only ever been asked for 3 months payslips and a reference from employer confirming my salary as evidence.

Both self-employed

They are looking at £7-800 a month, they moved out into a friend place (with more rent) for a year but the friend needs it back so are looking again

Their limit is about 650 which is hard & after April they will be able to get a mortgage, it's so frustrating

That’s been standard for as long as I’ve been renting, I don’t think it’s new. An average salary worker on their own couldn’t rent a single basic house where I live, it’s ridiculous. And yet you can’t use paying these high rents as assurance you can pay a mortgage of the same or less a month 🤷🏼‍♀️

So do they both need to earn 30 times the monthly rent or can they earn it jointly?

800 x 30 is 24k. That is well below full time minimum wage for two people. They also don’t need two bedrooms for working from home. Fold out desks, one works in the bedroom, one in the lounge then swap for a change of scene. If they really want a two bed they both need to work more hours. £24k really isn’t a high expectation for two people.

Are you sure they’ve got their numbers correct?

This year they are earning more - more that that already (well end of Nov)
Start ups take time to become viable & there aren't really any more hours to work