Rent Rises a Myth ? (For Some)

[Gloster]

Mother in law has a couple of properties she rents out to boost her pension. Both mortgage free, both have good tenants. Both managed through an agent.
She has no interest in raising her rents, but the agent keeps pestering her that she’s letting them below market value and should increase them.
My logic is the agent wants to get more income as they manage them on a percentage basis. The bigger the rent the more they get.

And, of course, who gets the fees for finding a new tenant if the existing one decides to move out as a result of the rent hike? It is a win-win for the agents, if not for anybody else.

 

[Segedunum]

The issue with quoting that interest rates *were* much higher is that wages were proportionally a lot higher at that time compared to house prices. Less of a difference where I live, granted - as the North East isn't horribly expensive outside of city centres (or the likes of Darras Hall) but more so in other parts of the country (and London is pure insanity).

Talk of agents has reminded me that the agents I did with for my last flat in Sheffield were morons of the highest degree. As soon as everything was signed they simply disappeared. I had to chase them and explain what the purpose of an inventory was, why I needed it and why it was necessary for my deposit to be returned.

When I moved out - the building manager said that they no longer let through said agency, thank the lord.

I still don't have time for those who think that buying up a load of property and having someone else pay off their mortgage constitutes a career, while others struggle to get on the property ladder at all.

 

[cb a1]

With regard to Mortgages no one was complaining when the base rate was 0.1% that they had to much money !! - Caveat Emptor ?

I remember when they hit 15% in the early nineties - that was something to fear.

Is there any area of the UK where I could undercut my current rent of £350pcm for a 1Bedroom Flat ?

Imagine what I would get in London - a park bench ?

Places like Brechin maybe. 1 bed (unfurnished) flat on Zoopla for £325.
In 2018, I managed to get a 2 bed unfurnished flat for £350pcm in Dundee following a split with my ex. Left there in 2021 and moved to a 2 bed unfurnished in Perth for £525 before buying current home last summer.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jun 2023 ==

When I had to start renting again in Scotland in 2018, I was very impressed with the experience. All the agents used the same standard form of contract, all properties had all the documents proving boiler tests etc. Deposit held in escrow and no problem getting any money back. All problems fixed promptly.
I understand some landlords don't like the protection for tenants in the Private Rented Sector in Scotland, but as a tenant it was a far better experience compared to renting 20 years ago in both Scotland and England.

 

[DarloRich]

With regard to Mortgages no one was complaining when the base rate was 0.1% that they had to much money !! - Caveat Emptor ?

I am not suggesting there should be support for mortgagees. I am simply saying that renters should not be insulated from the same economic shocks that the home owners ( or bank renters!) are

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jun 2023 ==

I remember when they hit 15% in the early nineties - that was something to fear.

I was there. We nearly lost our house. The issue we have now is that the percentage of wages used for mortgage payment is much higher than it was in the 1980's/90's.

 

[alxndr]

Talk of agents has reminded me that the agents I did with for my last flat in Sheffield were morons of the highest degree. As soon as everything was signed they simply disappeared. I had to chase them and explain what the purpose of an inventory was, why I needed it and why it was necessary for my deposit to be returned

The agents for my first flat were worse than that, I had to chase them for the contract and how to pay rent. Of all the things you'd think they'd be on top of, you'd think it would be getting money out of you.

 

[Snow1964]

I remember when they hit 15% in the early nineties - that was something to fear.

But at the time Banks and Building societies sensibly limited borrowers to about 4 or 4.5 times salary.

However ever since Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley etc introduced unchecked multiples, some people have borrowed more than they could really afford and left themselves no contingency.

I recently heard of someone who had borrowed 11 times salary, and if they extended mortgage to hold repayments down, would still be paying until age 79. Why stretch so far going to ruin big chunk of your retirement, madness ?

 

[Blindtraveler]

Social rented tenants are not immune from rises either sadly, and above inflation rise was inflicted on myself this year

 

[richw]

Social rented tenants are not immune from rises either sadly, and above inflation rise was inflicted on myself this year

Legally social landlords can only increase by CPI%+1%. However Due to the high CPI this year the government capped it at 7% increase for 2023/24 financial year.

 

[ComUtoR]

I still don't have time for those who think that buying up a load of property and having someone else pay off their mortgage constitutes a career, while others struggle to get on the property ladder at all.

Without landlords, where would the renters live ?

 

[E27007]

Is there any area of the UK where I could undercut my current rent of £350pcm for a 1Bedroom Flat ?

There are areas where you could rent a house for £350 pcm, the issue in those areas would be finding a job with the wages to regularly pay the £350 pcm

 

[nlogax]

Is there any area of the UK where I could undercut my current rent of £350pcm for a 1Bedroom Flat ?

Get thee to Greenock and all your dreams shall come true.

 

[Segedunum]

Without landlords, where would the renters live ?

Well if property wasn't bought up in swoops by investors and the like - prices wouldn't be as high as demand wouldn't be artificially inflated.

Hence, renters would have a better chance of actually buying themselves, rather than being stuck unable to save for a deposit as they're paying someone else's mortgage.

Like I say - experiences vary across the country. In the North East, it isn't quite so brutal and rent/property prices aren't completely out of reach for most just yet.

 

[Butts]

Get thee to Greenock and all your dreams shall come true.

Had a quick perusal does seem quite competitive ......

Have the Milk Floats got rear gunners and the dogs to be found wearing crash helmets ?

I wonder if anyone has still got a "controlled rent" anywhere where they pay way less than the open market rate- do these anomalies still exist ?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jun 2023 ==

Well if property wasn't bought up in swoops by investors and the like - prices wouldn't be as high as demand wouldn't be artificially inflated.

Hence, renters would have a better chance of actually buying themselves, rather than being stuck unable to save for a deposit as they're paying someone else's mortgage.

Like I say - experiences vary across the country. In the North East, it isn't quite so brutal and rent/property prices aren't completely out of reach for most just yet.

Can you get a 1 bedroom Flat for less than £350pcm ?

 

[nlogax]

Had a quick perusal does seem quite competitive ......

It's thirty quid below your stated number. What are you waiting for?

 

[Segedunum]

Had a quick perusal does seem quite competitive ......

Have the Milk Floats got rear gunners and the dogs to be found wearing crash helmets ?

I wonder if anyone has still got a "controlled rent" anywhere where they pay way less than the open market rate- do these anomalies still exist ?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jun 2023 ==



Can you get a 1 bedroom Flat for less than £350pcm ?

£350 is certainly achievable if you don't mind Hartlepool - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134461610#/?channel=RES_LET

The nearest one to me I could find at a glance is £425. If you want Newcastle, cheapest I could see for a property to yourself was a two-bed for £500. Naturally getting near the City Centre results in complete silliness and apartments for over a grand.

 

[richw]

The cheapest on rightmove in Plymouth that doesn’t feature Students Only in the description here in Plymouth is a 1 bed flat for £550 in an undesirable street, and the listing says

***DUE TO HIGH DEMAND VIEWINGS FULLY BOOKED***

The next cheapest is £575 also 1 bed says suits professional couple, again has the same high demand no further enquiries note.

 

[Butts]

The cheapest on rightmove in Plymouth that doesn’t feature Students Only in the description here in Plymouth is a 1 bed flat for £550 in an undesirable street, and the listing says

The next cheapest is £575 also 1 bed says suits professional couple, again has the same high demand no further enquiries note.

When my Brother was at Plymouth Poly in the eighties he stayed in some right dives. Professional had a whole different interpretation then - French Lessons anyone.

Is that in Muttley Plain or the like ?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jun 2023 ==

£350 is certainly achievable if you don't mind Hartlepool - https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134461610#/?channel=RES_LET

The nearest one to me I could find at a glance is £425. If you want Newcastle, cheapest I could see for a property to yourself was a two-bed for £500. Naturally getting near the City Centre results in complete silliness and apartments for over a grand.

That is a room not your own gaff !!!

 

[Segedunum]

When my Brother was at Plymouth Poly in the eighties he stayed in some right dives. Professional had a whole different interpretation then - French Lessons anyone.

Is that in Muttley Plain or the like ?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jun 2023 ==



That is a room not your own gaff !!!

You're indeed correct - I didn't notice that at first - pretty poorly listed.

I can do a two-bed terrace in Easington for £390 instead https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134638853#/?channel=STU_LET

Nearby Horden was once rated as the cheapest place to buy/rent in England. Not that you'd particularly want to.

Edit - sure enough, £350 for a two-bed in Horden: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/131956955#/?channel=RES_LET

 

[DarloRich]

Places like Horden will be cheap. Solid small terraced houses, fairly run down rough areas but actually lovley coastline and not as bad as people will make out. Bad but no worse than other run down NE mining towns!

That said you couldnt pay be to live in Hartlepooh!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jun 2023 ==

Just had a look at 2 bed terraces in Darlington. I think i paid £425 pcm over 10 years ago and a house 1 street over from mine is now £575. An increase but not massive over more than a decade

In Fenny Stratford where I live now a similar 2 bed terrace on the next street over from mine (slightly bigger than my darlo one due to the small garden and touch bigger kitchen/bathroom extension) is £1050 pcm.

@rg177 @Butts

 

[richw]

Is that in Muttley Plain or the like ?

The cheapest one was Devonport. The second cheapest was indeed Mutley.

 

[DarloRich]

The nearest one to me I could find at a glance is £425. If you want Newcastle, cheapest I could see for a property to yourself was a two-bed for £500. Naturally getting near the City Centre results in complete silliness and apartments for over a grand.

I was at uni in Newcastle and lived in three places:

St James Street: which was a housing association block of large flats turned over to the uni.
Fenham: MASSIVE terraced house of I think 8 rooms
Heaton: 2 bed "Tyneside Flat" ( They are pairs of single-storey flats within a two-storey terrace, a common type of Victorian housing in urban England.)

Rents were quite cheap tbh but Heaton and especially Fenham were not the poshest areas! That was before a time of the student accommodation towers you see today so the two houses were found via private letting agents! Rent was low by todays standards but competitive for the time. I couldn't afford the fancy areas.

 

[Segedunum]

I was at uni in Newcastle and lived in three places:

St James Street: which was a housing association block of large flats turned over to the uni.
Fenham: MASSIVE terraced house of I think 8 rooms
Heaton: 2 bed "Tyneside Flat" ( They are pairs of single-storey flats within a two-storey terrace, a common type of Victorian housing in urban England.)

Rents were quite cheap tbh but Heaton and especially Fenham were not the poshest areas! That was before a time of the student accommodation towers you see today so the two houses were found via private letting agents! Rent was low by todays standards but competitive for the time. I couldn't afford the fancy areas.

My lass lives near Whickham View (well, Benwell, but right on the edge) so I know Fenham quite well too.

They're not fancy, no, but I think they're still pretty competitive rent-wise too. And I've never had any bother walking around.

I once dated someone who lived in one of the fancy towers around St James Park and then moved to near Jesmond Dene. Dread to think the cost of that.

 

[DarloRich]

They're not fancy, no, but I think they're still pretty competitive rent-wise too. And I've never had any bother walking around.

Fenham was rougher than Heaton but no worse than other areas. Never any bother. Lots of students in both areas.

I once dated someone who lived in one of the fancy towers around St James Park and then moved to near Jesmond Dene. Dread to think the cost of that.

That was all fields when I lived there ( it was the brewery actually. No fancy towers!)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Rents have certainly increased against inflation, though harking back to prices in 2000 or so they may not be that far off. A one bed in Milton Keynes is now about £800pcm or so if you ignore the posh city centre flats, I paid £425 in 2001 when I first moved here. Beer has certainly doubled in price since 2001, so I don't think that's way off.

There's a lot of moaning about it being too expensive to live in London, but that's not new either, it wouldn't have such a huge commuter belt if it wasn't. And Metroland hasn't been affordable for 50+ years.

The one I don't get is how prices have shot up in Manchester compared to the rest of the north west, when most of its suburbs are just nasty.

 

[james60059]

From personal experience, there is a big difference whether you're housing association or private. My rent was £455 pcm in 2013, it is now £520 pcm. This is for a 3 bedroom house with a housing association which I think is quite good. My brother pays £650pcm for a 1 bed flat with a private landlord, it was £600pcm until April then it was increased.

 

[Gloster]

I wonder whether there is a larger than ever differential between locations with universities and those without, although there has always been some. Anecdotally, I have heard that nowadays students now want the ‘experience’ and that includes far better quality accommodation than those of twenty-five or so years ago who mainly wanted a qualification would put up with.

 

[CharlieSpotted]

Is there any area of the UK where I could undercut my current rent of £350pcm for a 1Bedroom Flat ?

I'm currently paying £350 for a 1 bed flat too, hasn't increased in 14 years, but not for much longer as the landlord has got his Section 21 notice in just in time and is selling up. We are looking at our rent more than doubling as a result - we are looking at small 1 bed flats at around £750 or 2 beds at around £900. I'm lucky in that my wage has also more than doubled since we moved in, but it will still be a huge financial shock.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I wonder whether there is a larger than ever differential between locations with universities and those without, although there has always been some. Anecdotally, I have heard that nowadays students now want the ‘experience’ and that includes far better quality accommodation than those of twenty-five or so years ago who mainly wanted a qualification would put up with.

This is no bad thing, as it puts the likes of small terraced houses back into the family starter home market as students prefer dedicated blocks with facilities like gyms. There's always whining about the building of student blocks in small towns and cities dominated by a university (e.g. Ormskirk or Lancaster) but in reality these are positive because they cause students not to clog up family homes as much.

 

[WelshBluebird]

This is no bad thing, as it puts the likes of small terraced houses back into the family starter home market as students prefer dedicated blocks with facilities like gyms. There's always whining about the building of student blocks in small towns and cities dominated by a university (e.g. Ormskirk or Lancaster) but in reality these are positive because they cause students not to clog up family homes as much.

The issue is though, and I've seen this in both Bath and Bristol locally, how many of those student blocks are actually affordable? Certainly when I was living in Bath a room in a HMO (that you'd rent as a house together with your friends) as about half what the companies running the student blocks in town wanted! Even with gyms etc I'm not sure everyone is willing to shift over and pay a lot more!

 

[Bletchleyite]

The issue is though, and I've seen this in both Bath and Bristol locally, how many of those student blocks are actually affordable? Certainly when I was living in Bath a room in a HMO (that you'd rent as a house together with your friends) as about half what the companies running the student blocks in town wanted! Even with gyms etc I'm not sure everyone is willing to shift over and pay a lot more!

If some do the effect is still positive in terms of housing availability.

There were always "posh" and cheaper halls, though admittedly the difference is greater these days.

The whinge is often "why not build family flats instead" - it's sort of a point, but I don't know many families who'd choose a flat above a shop over a small terraced house.