Tenants want the next government to control rent rises

Tenants want rent controls - no s**t Sherlock!

I'd like a 200ft super yacht.,...................

The best way to minimise rent rises would be to reduce the landlords’ costs and to incentivise them to charge reasonable through the tax system.

Imposing simple rent controls may be a vote winner but the unintended consequences are bad news for tenants.

Reply to the comment left by Cider Drinker at 24/06/2024 - 08:19
Stop talking sense. Reciprocal legislation where both sides benefit is not in the vocabulary of modern politics. People want to scream soundbites and apportion blame rather than seek the realistic chance of a solution.

How did the survey go?:
Would you like your rent to:
a) be able to be increased to extortionately high levels on an unscrupulous landlord's whim*
b) be controlled so that you never have to pay more, ever, whatever happens to landlords costs or inflation, for as long as you choose to keep living in their house?
*I hope I got the typical terminology about right there

Reply to the comment left by JamesB at 24/06/2024 - 09:50
What this post says is:

“...managing rental inflation is best achieved by growing supply through new home building as measures to control rents can reduce new investment.”

It's true that measures to control rents can reduce new investment but none of the parties can build its way out of the problem.

Tenants may want rent controls, but Landlords, probably, want BTL mortgage rate controls, no 3%, 4% or 6%, second property Land Tax or Capital Gains Tax when rolling over a property to buy a better new home for residents..

Councils, probably, want new build rental home costs to be no more that the cost of funding the borrowing and maintenance costs'

Buyers want new and second hand homes to cost much less, but new legislation.

Guess who is going to get what?

Under the Scottish system of sealed bids for houses buyers are used to being outbid by purchasers who really want to buy and are prepared to put in the highest offer for a house. The SNP rent-control experiment has demonstrated that rent controls put rents up. Tenants in England are now offering more than the advertised rent to secure a property; at the moment tenants are driving up rents for new rentals.

Presumably if rent controls were to come in and a landlord was to advertise a property for a given rent that was within whatever guidelines had been set under the 'rent controls' that landlord couldn't be prosecuted for taking the offer of the tenant who offered the highest rent.

There ought to be a fair rent range.

It could consider the value of the property and the typical mortgage rate such that one costing £300k has a ‘starting point’ that is twice that of one costing £150k.

Then, add on likely maintenance costs based on things like floor area, number of bathrooms, included appliances and such like.

Don’t forget things like Selective Licensing. Assume all landlords are higher rate taxpayers for S24.

Add on insurances and let’s not forget risk.

Risks such as a non-paying tenant or one that damages the property, (virtually impossible to avoid) void periods and the inevitable changes to legislation.

Then there’s Letting Agent fees, accountant fees, SDLT and so on.

I’m sure a ‘reasonable rent range’ could be calculated that would act as a guide.

One more thing, according to the LHA that my tenants receive, rents have risen by less than 11% since 2020 (or 2019 when data for the previous rates was gathered).

So, why do people think rents have risen by more than inflation?

I want the government to control rent rises but I bet my tenants don't. Haven't raised my rents for years, but if the government get involved they would look at nearer market value.