Rent hike

Ogriv

So I've been in my bedsit in Upper Tollington Park for 3 happy years. Yesterday I learn that the rent is to increase by £225 per month. I'm a born and bred Londoner who grew up in rented accommodation. I didn't know life was about getting as much money as you can out of others. I know it now. As it happens I'm one of the lucky ones with a professional job. So I'm leaving the capital. Good luck, all you renters out there.

miss annie

That's awful. Landlords are just out to fleece people now. I hope that the interest rate hike that's on the way and the Mayor delivering his promise of tons of affordable accommodation stops the buy to let pirates soon.

HolbornFox

You can go to a rent tribunal?<div><br><div><br><div><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Trouble is what do you do, i had to buy out of London and then rent it out to support myself in London, where i am from, it is a nightmare that makes me part of the problem, the tenants probably hate me as well(!).</span><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div>

miss annie

You are very fortunate to have the disposable funds to have been able to buy. The majority of people renting in London are not in same position. Yes, they probably do, but the money must cushion the blow?

Ogriv

Thanks both<br>Perhaps a rent tribunal would be the right thing. <br>But I have a new job with a very steep learning curve; and I must be overseas for work quite frequently this summer. <br>I don't think I can handle a rent tribunal on top of that. <br>TBH I think it's just best to get out of my home town. <br>It's no ordinary home town. <br><br>I have been practising eccentric levels of frugality of late as I feared something like this. <br>I might be able to buy a shed in Hull if I play my cards right. <br><br>I know that those who are renting out their properties must at least some of the time think of it as just an investment; as just business. But people's lives are involved. <br><br>Anyway, in order to survive we have to take on this new view of the world and not be naive. <br>I think there aren't any limits on how bad it can get in London now. <br>

miss annie

Agree. Good luck to you.

HolbornFox

@miss annie haha honestly I am a foolish landlord, I don't put the rent up and keep the house in top order... Most people would have evicted my tenants by now, they are a flipping nightmare. On or off topic re Europe I am not sure, but just wait until Tesco and Co start buying the houses up, then we're screwed!

Papa

There will be more rent rises on the way I am afraid, as landlords try to protect their profits which will be eaten into by George Osborne's changes to how you can offset mortgage interest against income tax on rent.<div><br></div><div>Currently, you can offset all mortgage interest and you only pay tax on the profit between that and rent.</div><div><br></div><div>From April 2017, a new system will be phased in that caps the interest relief at 20%, so higher rate taxpayers will end up paying tax on revenue not profit.</div><div><br></div><div>Hits the heavily leveraged landlords with low yielding properties the hardest. Of which I reckon there are quite a few round here.</div><div><br></div><div>Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the tax change, in high-demand areas like Stroud Green where there is pricing power it will mean that rents get raised.<br><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>

miss annie

<p>Then I hope people move out and landlords are left with empty properties. There will be a point when the people that are keen to live here can't afford the rents and the people that can stump up that amount would prefer more bang for their buck in a better area. </p><p>I was talking to a big group of fashionable, creative 20somethings last weekend and they are all for moving out to Deal & Margate. The train fares are balanced out by the lower rents and they are looking at lovely big houses to share for half what they'd pay here. Trains are regular and quite speedy too. Well worth looking at if you want to rent.</p><p>Interestingly none of them would consider renting round here. Not because of cost either.</p>

Ali

<p>Kentification.</p><p>They will end up pushing up prices  in Kent and push those  in that local marhet out.</p>

HolbornFox

Deal is great, my friend moved there, (old) Hastings is cool too.<br><br>I cannot understand why people BTL round here, the yields are pathetic.

therattle

I know people who have done BTL as investments before, but I hate the idea of being somebody's landlord. <br>

Sutent

The yields round here have been very good. When I moved in to the area a 1-2 bedroom flat was 130-200k. Now these are worth 600K-1 million. <div><br></div><div>I am not sure why people blame the landlords for the high prices of rent, surely people are encouraged to make as much money as possible. This is what the governments encourage. Until the laws change this will get worse. Why should the landlords have any social responsibility.</div>

miss annie

I know three Guardian journalists, all of whom live in Hastings!

south_to_north

I feel like part of the issue is intermediaries, it's much harder to raise rents on someone you've met and that you know.... Also, as with anything, people's minds might change if they get into the situation where they're a landlord. If someone is paying you below market rent, from one perspective they're ripping you off. I agree with @stutent as it seems like it should be the government's role to try and regulate on behalf of renters... And I love @ali 's point.... I'm sure there'll be conversations exactly like this from deal inhabitants if that trend were to continue.

Ogriv

There are not many real common interests between landlords and tenants, especially in today's barely regulated market. <br>I've known some lovely people become rather greedy the moment they became a landlord. <br>Obviously there are thankfully some notable exceptions (big shout to Daniel Wollinsky who I rented from 2007-2011). <br><br>I know the point of view of a lot of people is "if you're stupid enough to rent, what do you expect?"<br>Exploit or be exploited. <br>It's not a point of view I like, and having grown up in rented accommodation I think I was massively naive. <br>But in the modern UK housing market you sort of have to bear that point of view in mind, as the system is set up that way. <br>I'm finding the reality check quite refreshing as well as upsetting. <br><br>:-)<br>

south_to_north

I think "exploit" is a bit of a strong term, as the transaction is still largely reciprocal. What complicates it is the nature of property as a commodity, in that it becomes more than a place to live but also a home. Maybe the secret is not to get too attached in a red hot rental market? Easier said than done unfortunately.... And regrettably you are correct. Though many long term renters wish we had a continental system, that's not going to happen. Too many people have an interest in keeping the system as it is. Not just russian oligarchs but also millions of comparatively "normal" (though admittedly fortunate) people as well. A friend is mine who is a waitress is buying a small flat in Manchester to get on the property ladder, as ultimately the longer you stay renting the more you become disadvantaged later in life if you have the holes in your pockets that are younglings.... Good luck with your move by the way, there are many benefits to be had from not paying cripplingly high rents I'm sure!

Ali

<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-e7806433-d57c-327d-e702-e80b00afd9bc"><span>Sadiq will establish a London-wide not-for-profit lettings agency to promote longer-term, stable tenancies for responsible tenants and good landlords across London.</span></span></p><p><span><span>More here</span></span></p><p><span><span><a href="http://www.sadiq.london/homes_for_Londoners">http://www.sadiq.london/homes_for_Londoners</a></span></span></p><p><span><span><br></span></span></p><p><span><span>Lets see what happens</span></span></p><p><span><span><br></span></span></p>

Sutent

Sadiq has already failed in no TFL price fare increases. Travelcard cost are going up 

JoeV

I don't know what the answers are for renters. But the lack of stability in the private rentals is a serious problem, especially in London, and one of the reasons why my partner and I left.<div><br></div><div>If only the UK had more rental buildings as opposed to rental flats, maybe the system could be regulated more fairly for both tenants and landlords. </div>

Ali

<p>Boris didn't help much on this at all, just let it rip.</p><p>Strangely how he is now going about promising the earth to anyone who would vote for Brexit.</p><p>He got rid of the policy for much affordable housing in London and didn't do anything much about rouge landlords.</p><p>Landlords  should be registered and inspected regularly just like they are in Scotland.</p><p>The number of people who I have come across who have had to live in damp houses etc because they have no choice astounds me in this day and age.</p>

kittygal

Rented privately for many years & really did not mind it, but there came a point when I thought I'm getting too old for this! & being at the mercy of landlords, notice periods etc.

Mimsy

Ogriv: I think you; soon find the dreams of 'buy to let' will turn to dust.... <br><br>Although its been said many times before, this time, I truly believe, we have passed the peak of housing. <br><br>Its gonna be one heckuva  fall from here, because truly, nothing actually does go up for ever.<br>

HolbornFox

That may be true in central London, in fact investment is being pulled already (although the developer keeps the deposit so they don't care) but in the suburbs if prices dropped people would flock in to buy pushing it immediately back up. I've heard of several people lately buying 2/3 flats in one split property and turning it back into one house... how much money would that cost?! What worries is me is that fact that it is a global trend, like neo-fuckerism, so it is obviously a global agenda.

Ogriv

<p>I'm sort of pessimistic, actually, on a national/global level.</p> <p>I have heard that there's some slowdown in the top end in Westminster (I met someone in Planning there), but in the UK everyone is absolutely obsessed with property ownership and I fear you have to join them to survive in this country.</p> <p>And globally - well there's a global elite who want their needs met. Don't see that stopping.</p> <p>I think it would take a world war to get any kind of big changes. Cos a lot of us are still doing OK-ish. And some of us are doing even better than that.</p> <p> </p>

miss annie

I wonder how Brexit, which seems to be imminent, will affect things?

Ogriv

No idea. Could go either way, or could stay the same. That is my informed opinion.

Sutent

I am in Berlin at the moment and they have rent control in some areas to keep communities mixed. I know we have discussed this here before many times. They have also made airbnb difficult too.

Ali

Have they got UBER?

Sutent

Yes they have uber but the local government approved taxi drivers provide the cars with the meter. Interesting way of doing it

JoeV

Here's an article from earlier in the year about Berlin's rent control laws. http://www.citylab.com/housing/2016/02/berlin-rent-control-cbre-report/458700/#disqus_thread