Sadiq Khan calls again for a rent freeze in London

He fails to take into account that landlords face increasing costs. My mortgage rate has gone from 1.25% to 6%, and all other costs, such as service charges have gone up, in some cases by huge percentages.

Maybe rent increases should be linked to interest rate and service charge increases:-)

Doesn't Khan have any brains?

Reply to the comment left by JB at 03/04/2023 - 11:43
Clearly not. He’s just bidding for voting popularity with renters, but trying to deflect the sky high ULEZ charges on all residents including those whom can least afford it.

I had to pay £650 per month for a room in a shared house in my 20s some 10+ years ago. Not sure why it is any different now? Took me until my 30s before I could buy a home outside of London.

A rent freeze sounds an awful lot like rent controls, which arguably is communism.

Happily have a rent freeze, if they also freeze food costs, utility bills, interest rates, Council tax etc etc.
why is it they only harp on about rent freezes, Just trying to win votes. It's well documented worldwide that rent freezes do not work. Why doesn't Khan build more houses, he has missed his targets by miles and as usual blames everyone else but his own incompetence.

The rental market is facing total collapse, landlords sell up to buyers who don't care about EPCs, but as a landlord you most probably will have to comply to a rating of C by 2028 the current metrics of measuring a C or anything else doesn't make sense, idiots like Khan Grove and Shelter are stirring the pot making matters worse, with greater immigration either allowed or illegal will increase the problem, builders are facing increased hurdles from National Heritage to build affordable homes along with housing associations another Grove cock up so they revise plans to cut the number of affordable homes so they can make money all in all a big mess caused by 13 years of Conservative mismanagement.

Yah Mr mayor. You're cunning and strange in character. Landlords should freeze rental payments whilst you're bringing the worst tax burden on londoners. Incredibly, you're out of touch with the pains and suffering of hardworking people in London. Take a closer look of your numerous tax collecting schemes including the expansion of ULEZ...I definitely hope your policies ends your future polical careers in UK

Once again the answer is to plunder funds from hardworking people and not come up with an alternative to the mess they all created.

I have a 2 bedroom mansion flat in Maida Vale, London W9 which has for years been rented to various different single families or two separate sharers. Last year after the flat became vacant I looked into walling off the dining area to make a third bedroom and hence rent it to 3 sharers. The alterations would have been fairly straightforward. This would not have given a huge boost to rent, perhaps another £400pm but worth having to cover extra costs and the overall rent per tenant would have been lower per tenant when shared by 3 instead of 2. It would also of course have provided a home to another person.
When I looked into this I found out that a few years ago the City of Westminster changed the rules on HMOs and would now deem the flat to be an HMO if rented to 3. I think I also needed Planning Permission. There would also be attendant costs of fire doors etc plus the costs of applying for the licence.
My flat is actually one of the safest types regarding fire escape as it is a Raised Ground Floor, you just have to run out of the front door or any window to be safe. The rules for licensing an HMO in Westminster are so complicated there are specialist agencies to be hired who can help guide a landlord through the myriad rules and complications of Planning and getting an HMO license but no agency I called could tell me exactly what I needed to do to make it compliant as every property is different and council inspectors apparently make it up as they go along as whether they feel the property is compliant or not.
Of course I scrapped the idea of the third bedroom and again rent to 2 sharers. I also noticed many 2 bed flats in W9 say they were formerly 3 beds, so it would appear landlords have been reducing occupancy of their flats in order to not make them an HMO.
So there you are Mr Khan, what a wonderful job you are doing in London of reducing available homes for renters and so thereby increasing rents.
Yet you want to introduce rent caps in London. How about first some joined up thinking between the Mayor and the Local Authorities, or is that too all too difficult for you??

Reply to the comment left by Bristol Landlord at 03/04/2023 - 22:02
That's generally the problem with smaller HMOs. They used to be the cheapest form of accommodation in London but as a majority of councils are looking to make easy money they have made ' Additional HMOs' (3/4 sharers) get a licence so LLs have reduced their occupancies due the over stringent regs for even small HMOs.

Khan wants to fund recruit/train more enforcement housing police but as you know they make up their version of housing law as they go along as the experienced HMO inspectors have retired so you now have overzealous clipboard tickers asked to generate civil penalty income from LLs for the council for minor things!