The crisis in renting in the UK right now means bidding wars, living with mould and damp, personality contests and skyrocketing rent. But why is the rental market so bad in Britain and is this the worst time ever to rent? [Watch the second episode in this series here:
For the millions of people who rent privately in the UK, you may have noticed it feels harder than ever right now.
Or as one renter we spoke to told us – “It’s basically like the Wild West.”
We put a message out online and were inundated with replies about rent hikes, mouldy homes and impossible flat hunts.
Demand for rental properties is rising, but the supply of homes for rent is shrinking and the cost of monthly rent has increased by the highest rate on record.
We look at all of these issues and explain why they’re happening in the UK right now.
Produced, filmed and edited: Frances Rankin
Produced and presented: Milena Dambelli
Executive Producer: Kieron Bryan
—–
Follow us:
Facebook –
Twitter –
source
50 Comments
Because the government won't introduce laws saying that private sector rentals must be fit for human habitation because most of the government are slum landlords.
We all know why
Mortgage rates are currently at an all time high since 2000(24 years) and based on statistics on inflation, we might see that number skyrocket further, a 30-year fixed rate was only 5% this time last year, so do I just keep waiting for a housing crash before buying or redirect my focus to the equity market
Estate agents are not the problem. Landlords are not the problem.flooding the country with people is the problem .supply and demand tell your goverment. fools
No sympathy, these are the same over educated underfunctional soggy woke who welcome massive inward migration from the most alien societies on earth.
Tough.
Live with the consequences of your ridiculous woke bigotries.
You are 34 where is your husband where is your children. By the way you do not have a good job.
This is not only a problem in the UK but in many countries around the world
Who is to blame well it's the people who keep voting in the same government's who's policies are destroying the country
There are many reasons why the UK is suffering like mass immigration meaning too many people chasing too few houses too many taxes making landlords sell up and too many regulations making the market shrink
It will only get worse if people dont wake up and see that they are becoming slaves in their own countries
I think renters reform is also not going to help. More landlord is going to sell up and also government is thinking of increasing capital gain tax as well. Exodus of landlord will mean even though the rent is less there would be no houses available to rent.
Spending 1/3 of their income on rent is normal in Europe as well.
Imagine if pensionners didn't have to buy properties to top up their pensionns. How many houses would be on the market for cheap?
house collecting is now the most popular sport in the country. It's like the Monopoly those who haven't purchased houses at the begging the game are now f**cked.
Sorry to say this you won’t get accommodation now because the illegal immigrants will have the accommodation.
I am really sorry to say this.
Oh poor girl, i was thinking UK is rich, only thé Queen familly. UK as some the same issues than France.
No remorse that's the way it feels to me
Or having a career at 34 rather than studying.
Its all thanks to central banks. Whether its the Federal Reserve in the US or the bank of England in the UK or the European Central bank.
Back in 2007, during my time working in real estate, I witnessed people purchasing newly built homes from builders with the plan to sell them before the closing of escrow to another buyer for a profit. The crash hit hard and fast, and I vividly recall many of these units ending up foreclosed upon, with the builder's plastic still covering the carpets.
To many air b and b , holiday, second homes. Multi generation living is quite common in lots of countries, its a good thing.
Get out from uk 😂😂
Welcome in Italy
Oops i mean England
INLIVPARS = INVOLUNTARILY LIVING WITH PARENTS
So many countries have housing shortages now. Somehow theyve ignored the need for newbuilds, and this has been coming for 30 years
If you're ever 25…… you should've bought Bitcoin.
Peter Kemp should keep his idiot ideas to himself
The UK ( England ) has become worse than a Third World Country to live, dishonest and dodgy landlords everywhere
Immigration of course.
It’s called ‘supply and demand’.
Our little island is simply too crowded.
If there were fewer people here, there would be less competition for housing and then pricing would fall.
The strange thing is that in the recent General Election, so many of the people impacted by lack of housing chose not to vote for the only party that would have physically done something about the overcrowding… sounds a little counter productive to me.
Yeah let's not state the obvious reason, shortage of supply driven by mass immigration
You know whats rediculous? With thse high rents..Banks pretending like you cant afford a mortgage.
Capitalism gone mad. Landlords who now own a string of properties are employing asset managers to handle their portfolio. These asset management companies have shareholders and the companies take high wages and declare good dividends. These costs demands on the company revenue have to be met by increased rental rates making the cost of renting exorbitant. As rents rise private landlords take advantage of these increases and put their rates up too even though there is no real need to do so. It's just because they see other similar properties making greater profits that the are and so jump on the bandwagon and make ridiculous profits from their clientele. It's disgusting selfish greed, the elite getting rich on the backs of hard working productive people, and our governments have done nothing to control it because they collect more tax. It's just a gravy train.
Combination of not enough housing and too many immigrants taking up housing.
Imagine leaving a as she says well payed job to then start moaning about not being able to afford rent
All the houses in congested areas are being bought cheap 'alot of the time by foreigners' and then converted into either ridiculously overpriced air b and b's or coverted to HMO to support the huge influx of migrants be them legal or not. This drives up the rental price of all 1 bed or 2 bed properties. The HMO will charge tennants per room and it seems they are mostly lived in by migrants. The single room in a HMO is now asking the same price as what a 2 bed terraced house was to rent 4 years ago. They are literally destroying the rental market for single working citizens and are the main cause for the spike in homelessness. The councils know this but do nothing
I know, let in millions more illegals into the UK. That will lower rental prices. Left winger logic.
Honestly, most of these problems can be solved using a good dehumidifier and chemical treatment of surfaces along with some basic maintenance. It seems that many renters and homeowners lack basic accountability and responsibility, expecting the other party to take care of the problems. I personally don’t buy this complaining culture, and choose to either improve my living conditions or simply move to a better place by paying the price of doing the necessary work
Section 24 is the reason
No charts or mention of population growth, especially in SE England over the last 30 years, and where the majority of this population growth has come from (hint, it's not from people having too many babies).
This mess of a situation is namely due to lots fo governments cutting public housing programming in the 60s-90s, then when the 2008 crsis happend it made all rents at least here in Canada jump about 400-500 dollars permanetly and its never come down, making it the new baseline and now its being pushed again with inflation. This all comes down to 1. greed: Most landlords rather charge as much as they can to cover high repair costs due to crazy tenants than taking the time to rent with a good tenant and offering them a reduced rate, in addition to 2. terrible government oversight. The whole point of public housing programs was to free up the private sector's demand to allow property owners to slowly keep buying and investing in more property allowing wealth to trickle down by allowing supply to increase and demand level out. The demand should never be too low that it stops all innovation and too high that it causes economic collapse due to cities being unable to attract new workers and residents. Tottally unbalanced, those in power it seems rather keep prices high to make good profits than grow sustainability and be comfortable with a reasonable renters income coming in.
It's not shame to live with your elderly parents, but instead a previlge to help them and make them happy in their old age…
Mass immigration has caused a housing shortage which has increased house prices and rents due to demand. Quite obvious when you think about it.
Stuff like this is why expats from the U.S. and Europe move to places like Thailand or the Philippines. The cost of living is way less but the quality is either still the same or a lot better. Especially if its a beach front property.
Why would she be talking to some old geezer about the housing crisis, he has no input on the matter. . . Nobody in the UK has "the power to act".
And why is there an increasing demand if British are having less children?
Tada…starts with I.
1 – Devaluation of currrency. Which causes inflation. (more expensive , more difficult to build anew and renovate. Will also lead owners to increase rents)
2 – Sudden and exponential increase in population (via immigration).Which weighs on demand without boosting supply.
3 – Insufficient help from the governement as the latter diverts tax revenue towards immigration funding.
Additionally Migrants then weighs down on salaries as they are willing to take on any low pay jobs. Also competing with local populations.
1 + 2 + 3 together = impoverishment of the local population
Then to top it off, debt reimbursement which interacts with all three points above.
Greed, private equity and GREED.
Uk government is not looking into this mafia just focused on migrants
I am paying 600 for an ensuite with shared kitchen in student accommodation
Everything is bad in UK
Ok, who owns most houses in the uk?! Jews and Indians
To think the market will calm down is folly. This problem won't go away until we tackle the causes, and probably the biggest one is the population increase.
the key reason rent had increased so drastically is due to the cost of borrowing from banks and brokers. tenants used to cover the cst of the landlords mortgage for the fixed term, now for a lot of people who were lucky enough to be locked in on a 3% 5 year term, they are literally seeing their mortgage go up by half so they have to pass those costs on to the tenants.
to put it into perspective, a 3 bed house could be mortgaged for £800 a month with rent costing £1000. now the monthly payment goes up to say £1200 so rent has to increase, bearing in mind this additional cost doesn't pay off the landlords mortgage any quicker, it just got more expernsive to pay back the money they borrowed initialy.
most landlords would prefer to have happy tennant who pay low rent, but the soaring interest rates makes this impossible.