Landlord rent rises spark calls for government intervention

Landlord rent rises spark calls for government intervention

10:04 AM, 9th December 2024, About 2 weeks ago 26

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News that more than half of landlords in England put up the rent for a new tenancy this year has led campaigners to urge the government to deal with rent affordability.

The call comes from the Renters’ Rights Coalition which points to the publication of the ‘English Private Landlord Survey‘ last week.

The government survey found that 58% of landlords put up the rent for a new tenant – and 35% of landlords increased it by 15% or more.

The survey also found that the proportion of landlords raising rent on current tenants when renewing tenancies was 52% – that’s double the rate in 2021.

‘Sky’s the limit when putting up rent’

Lucy Tiller from the Renters’ Reform Coalition said: “For many landlords it seems the sky’s the limit when putting up rent.”

She adds that unaffordable rent rises lead to families having to leave their homes and communities.

Ms Tiller says the government must strengthen the Renters’ Rights Bill by limiting in-tenancy rent rises to either the lower of wage growth or inflation.

She adds that the Bill doesn’t address renting costs so there needs to be a commission created to investigate rent affordability.

Generation Rent’s chief executive Ben Twomey also weighed in saying that the Bill needs to prevent high rent rises to force tenants out.

He also called for the government ‘to slam the brakes on soaring rents’ so tenants get ‘breathing space’.

Landlords want to downsize or sell

The English Private Landlord Survey also found that:

  • There has been a big rise in landlords wanting to downsize or sell their property portfolios, with 31% now considering this option compared to 22% in 2021
  • Almost half of landlords (47%) own properties with a low energy efficiency rating (D or below), but only 35% of these landlords intend improving their properties’ energy efficiency
  • There’s a significant proportion of landlords who are reluctant to rent to tenants receiving housing benefits (38%) or those requiring property adaptations (47%).
  • 41% of landlords own their properties outright, with no mortgage debt.

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H MD

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10:04 AM, 14th December 2024, About A week ago

My property. I will decide - with the market - what rent I should charge.
I previously always set my rent below market prices for existing tenants, now I increase the rent every 12 months to market levels.

LaLo

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18:57 PM, 14th December 2024, About A week ago

May as well become a bad LL as I’m suffering all the rules and regs anyway!

Mike

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20:24 PM, 14th December 2024, About A week ago

Apart from S24, the other major cause of higher rents is Selective Licensing, and now we have Awab's Law that will make any landlord responsible to deal with mould even if it were caused by the tenants life style. Selective Licensing which was brought in to curb on over crowding, meaning those families who were happy to stuff 4 children under 13 in one room and one for the parents themselves were able to afford to rent a 2 bedroom house, but Selective licensing meant they could no longer be allowed to rent a 2 bedroom property so they had to leave and rent a 3 bedroom property at much higher rents, this caused shortage of affordable homes and ever so increasing rents due to stricter legislation. Today many councils are stuffing households of 6 people to a room in a temporary accommodation in B&Bs, so where are their standards when it comes to the LA themselves allowing overcrowding. in temp accommodation.
When you drive standards high, rents will obviously go up, Selective licence just did that, poor tenants have no choice to rent slightly substandard properties at affordable rents, so now have no choice but to rent higher standard accommodation at higher rents. Imagine you visit a town and are looking to book a cheap hotel, where you would not want to spend much more than £50 per night, but you find that there are no cheaper hotels as all were forced through legislation to adopt higher standards, so now you do not have a choice but to spend £100 to stay overnight in higher standard hotel.

Mick Roberts

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11:52 AM, 15th December 2024, About A week ago

Reply to the comment left by LaLo at 14/12/2024 - 18:57
Well said so simply.

Mick Roberts

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11:54 AM, 15th December 2024, About A week ago

Reply to the comment left by Mike at 14/12/2024 - 20:24
Same in Nottingham, they've made many homeless as they sticking to the bedroom sizes bought in 2015 for London which Nottingham Council never bothered with till Selective Licensing. Now Selective Licensing here, Landlords petrified when tenant has extra kid born, Selective Licensing said can't live here any more, Nottingham Council then put family of 6 in one room in hotel.
You say it brilliant on the hotel analogy Mike.

Steve Rose

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8:46 AM, 16th December 2024, About 7 days ago

Personally I fully agree that the government needs to do something to help both tenants and potential home owners with the costs.
Reduce demand by ending net migration.
It ought to be illegal for a minister to issue a visa knowing that there isn't a home for that immigrant to go to. It's almost a crime against their human rights, so it would be kinder to turn them away before they even come here.

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