Generation Rent blames landlords for soaring rent prices outpacing wages

Please let me sit down with GR and I’ll teach them some maths.

Unfair taxation, rising interest rates, over regulation and increasing risk all contribute to higher rents.

This year, LHA rates in my area rose by 11%. The first rise in 4 years.

Good luck with that one. Twomey will shut his eyes, stick his fingers in his ears and go 'Lah, lah lah'. He is not concerned with the truth, only promoting himself as the tenant's saviour.

lessons in economics needed GR!

They wouldn't understand basic economics if you slapped them with it. They have an axe to grind against landlords and that is all they care about - certainly not the tenants they claim to represent. Perhaps their rants would be better directed at the government who sold off council housing then failed to build sufficient replacements for the increasing population (meaning LL have to plug the gap between being housed and homeless);employers who pay minimum wage or offer zero hour contracts so tenants can't qualify for a mortgage (meaning LL have to plug the gap), or the banks/lenders whose ridiculous criteria make mortgages unachievable (meaning LL have to plug the gap). If LL leave, as they are doing, then where will all these people go? Maybe if Gen Rant think they can do a better job than us 'nasty landlords' they can put some skin in the game and take on all those offloaded properties and do something useful for their clientele, and show us how it should be done.........yep thought not!

"Snatching away" - what a choice of words!
It sounds as if landlords are creeping behind tenants' backs and stealing their money.
Yet another gimmick to make landlords look bad. And not agood premise to start a productive conversation.
And yes, I agree with the other contributors: he is either clueless about how economics works in the real world, or pretending to be clueless for his own self-promotion and not for the benefit of the charity he is serving. Either of which is a sackable offense in my view.

"Generation Rent' needs lessons in economic? Not sure about that, I suspect that its true mission has little or nothing to do with renter's benefits, but rather it is a political Trojan Horse whose mission is to demonise and destroy the conventional PRS and corporatise the whole market with finance to build to ket to manage and profit by the likes of L&G and Black Rock.

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 19/09/2024 - 07:11
And despite all these government restrictions and taxations, rents still continue to rise! How is that possible? Maybe the fact governments have tanked the supply demand ratio over the past 20 years by allowing millions of migrants to move to a tiny island whilst not building enough new houses. 1.2 million new people arrived last year alone!

Utterly clueless. Has he not heard of Section 24, has he not seen interest rates go from 2.2% to 5.5%, Maybe he should speak less and learn a little more, then maybe, just maybe he will begin to understand that for the average landlord costs have increased significantly and not just by 7 or 8% but by their 100’s… and even with a rent increase at 10% the landlord would still be making less than before they remortgaged and then there’s S24 to contend with. Would his renters accept a cut in their wages? No, thought not, but Landlords are expected to. Perhaps he should campaign to revoke S24 and provide a solution, not just the problem. But the guy is clearly a fool, so never will.

What are Ben Twomey's qualifications/experience to be chief executive?

His rantings about landlords make him sound like a 2 year old. Has he not heard of market forces - lower supply=higher prices.

If he wants rents to be capped what does he think landlords will do? Carry on renting, or sell and invest elsewhere? Maybe he should go to Scotland and see how well its working up there.

Reply to the comment left by moneymanager at 19/09/2024 - 09:41
Indeed, is all part of the 'engineered' process of future rentals being via big corps and banks. According to the WEF, by 2030 we will own nothing and be happy!