30 years ago the working and middle classes were forced from buying in London.. I don’ remember the hand wringing then
It’s not a capitalist society until the poor is priced out. They want to maximise profits. That means rent will be priced for the majority population. If you don’t make that cut then you are screwed. Rents will be approaching close to what dual average incomes can support. That’s even more alarming when properties are getting smaller and smaller.
Housing used to be a commodity. It was cheap (twice-ish a single salary) and no one was interested in it really beyond needing it.
All that changed in the 80s when investors swooped in and started picking up defaults for cheap. By restricting availability they could push rents up, and they kept on doing so dive the investment further.
We need to find a way to getting housing back to being a commodity.
If we keep growing the population by more than the housing stock then prices can only keep rising. A landlord will only raise your rent and price you out if there’s someone else willing to move in and pay that inflated amount.
It’s so sad many people taking up to the streets / relocating to poor localities
What’s interesting is that the mortgage would let change which is the main expense other than property management fees. That is if you have a mortgage on your rental property.
It’s simply just greed
I consider myself incredibly fortunate that my landlady lives in NYC and has no idea what the rent *should* be for this place. Average for a flat this size in my area is £800 and I’m paying £610.
Harringey is about 6 stops from Kings Cross on the tube.
Over a million people commute into London, many spending 3 or 4 hours a day and £800 a month in the process.
Most of them would love to live in Harringey or somewhere equally close, but there isn’t room for them all, so the available housing will go to whoever is prepared to pay the most for it.
No point moaning about it as if you are the only person in the country affected by London prices. It is expensive because a million people would love to live there if they could afford it.
That woman was so poor she had to cut her own fringe from the looks of things…
Whether in the UK or US … this treatment of people will not end well, not for anyone.
I would have thought Brian Eno could afford to buy a place these days.
While others cannot even move out of their parents due to increasing rents. It is effectively pricing the poor and the young out of independence, security and the opportunity to have a family of their own. It’s cruel, especially as the wealthy rely on the average person to work for them and to buy what they sell. People are just not going to be able to afford to live very soon and the rich will still demand more money from us.
Build more commuter towns and make railways cheaper. I’d gladly commute for 2 hours (total not one way!) if the connection was fast and cheap.
Why cant it be “meet the landlord who’s forcing people from their soaring rents, and also meet the eviction people, and meet the courts process people who facilitate it.” I dont want to meet the tenants. lol
rent prices should be capped, we have a minimum wage but no maximum rent price. one makes the other redundant
Houses are no longer for housing people. They’re an investment mechanism. The people who own all the rental housing are wealthy. The tories represent the wealthy and are themselves landlords in many cases. As are many MPs in other parties.
They are not going to fix the housing market because if supply meets demand, prices drop. Their assets are no longer worth what they were, this will not be allowed to happen.
This is not a problem our government and Westminster in general are failing to fix. It’s not a problem to them at all, so there’s nothing to fix.
Rents are definitely out of control – largely, I suspect, because people are using the money from rents to fund their lifestyles and bills, so, energy bills go up, inflation goes up, interest rates go up and mortgage cost goes up, whatever goes up – so do the rents.
Rents appear to scale according to house prices these days, and as long as house prices keep rising, rents will too, and we’re going to hit a breaking point where the rental market just won’t work any more.
I appreciate that there’s people who’ll say rent controls don’t work. Maybe they won’t. I don’t know what will.
What definitely is NOT currently working right now are houses being priced well outside the reach of people who want their own home and to enjoy the rights they have that come with that (Decoration, furniture, pets, privacy), and rents being scaled to absolutely absurd levels at the same time.
There are houses near me that are worth, I’d say, about £200k – £250k that are being rented out for £2000 – £2500 per month. That’s £30k a year in rent. In 10 years, the renters have bought the bloody place in rent alone.
It’s not surprising people are being forced out of their homes by rent increases with how much money a landlord potentially can make.
Not to mention the whole bedroom tax situation that is likely absolutely shafting the very bottom rungs of it all.
Something needs to be done.
“The National Residential Landlords Association, which has 90,000 members, said it opposes reforms such as rent controls, which it claims would “deter investment” in the sector.”
That’s news to me, didn’t know landlords did any investment in the sector. Pretty sure they just buy a property then slam the rent up to max profit for themselves.
19 comments
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30 years ago the working and middle classes were forced from buying in London.. I don’ remember the hand wringing then
It’s not a capitalist society until the poor is priced out. They want to maximise profits. That means rent will be priced for the majority population. If you don’t make that cut then you are screwed. Rents will be approaching close to what dual average incomes can support. That’s even more alarming when properties are getting smaller and smaller.
Housing used to be a commodity. It was cheap (twice-ish a single salary) and no one was interested in it really beyond needing it.
All that changed in the 80s when investors swooped in and started picking up defaults for cheap. By restricting availability they could push rents up, and they kept on doing so dive the investment further.
We need to find a way to getting housing back to being a commodity.
If we keep growing the population by more than the housing stock then prices can only keep rising. A landlord will only raise your rent and price you out if there’s someone else willing to move in and pay that inflated amount.
It’s so sad many people taking up to the streets / relocating to poor localities
What’s interesting is that the mortgage would let change which is the main expense other than property management fees. That is if you have a mortgage on your rental property.
It’s simply just greed
I consider myself incredibly fortunate that my landlady lives in NYC and has no idea what the rent *should* be for this place. Average for a flat this size in my area is £800 and I’m paying £610.
Harringey is about 6 stops from Kings Cross on the tube.
Over a million people commute into London, many spending 3 or 4 hours a day and £800 a month in the process.
Most of them would love to live in Harringey or somewhere equally close, but there isn’t room for them all, so the available housing will go to whoever is prepared to pay the most for it.
No point moaning about it as if you are the only person in the country affected by London prices. It is expensive because a million people would love to live there if they could afford it.
That woman was so poor she had to cut her own fringe from the looks of things…
Whether in the UK or US … this treatment of people will not end well, not for anyone.
I would have thought Brian Eno could afford to buy a place these days.
While others cannot even move out of their parents due to increasing rents. It is effectively pricing the poor and the young out of independence, security and the opportunity to have a family of their own. It’s cruel, especially as the wealthy rely on the average person to work for them and to buy what they sell. People are just not going to be able to afford to live very soon and the rich will still demand more money from us.
Build more commuter towns and make railways cheaper. I’d gladly commute for 2 hours (total not one way!) if the connection was fast and cheap.
Why cant it be “meet the landlord who’s forcing people from their soaring rents, and also meet the eviction people, and meet the courts process people who facilitate it.” I dont want to meet the tenants. lol
rent prices should be capped, we have a minimum wage but no maximum rent price. one makes the other redundant
Houses are no longer for housing people. They’re an investment mechanism. The people who own all the rental housing are wealthy. The tories represent the wealthy and are themselves landlords in many cases. As are many MPs in other parties.
They are not going to fix the housing market because if supply meets demand, prices drop. Their assets are no longer worth what they were, this will not be allowed to happen.
This is not a problem our government and Westminster in general are failing to fix. It’s not a problem to them at all, so there’s nothing to fix.
Rents are definitely out of control – largely, I suspect, because people are using the money from rents to fund their lifestyles and bills, so, energy bills go up, inflation goes up, interest rates go up and mortgage cost goes up, whatever goes up – so do the rents.
Rents appear to scale according to house prices these days, and as long as house prices keep rising, rents will too, and we’re going to hit a breaking point where the rental market just won’t work any more.
I appreciate that there’s people who’ll say rent controls don’t work. Maybe they won’t. I don’t know what will.
What definitely is NOT currently working right now are houses being priced well outside the reach of people who want their own home and to enjoy the rights they have that come with that (Decoration, furniture, pets, privacy), and rents being scaled to absolutely absurd levels at the same time.
There are houses near me that are worth, I’d say, about £200k – £250k that are being rented out for £2000 – £2500 per month. That’s £30k a year in rent. In 10 years, the renters have bought the bloody place in rent alone.
It’s not surprising people are being forced out of their homes by rent increases with how much money a landlord potentially can make.
Not to mention the whole bedroom tax situation that is likely absolutely shafting the very bottom rungs of it all.
Something needs to be done.
“The National Residential Landlords Association, which has 90,000 members, said it opposes reforms such as rent controls, which it claims would “deter investment” in the sector.”
That’s news to me, didn’t know landlords did any investment in the sector. Pretty sure they just buy a property then slam the rent up to max profit for themselves.