Rocketing rent is ‘number one concern’ for tenants

Rocketing rent is ‘number one concern’ for tenants

11:06 AM, 12th January 2023, About A year ago 9

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The rocketing cost of rent is the number one concern for renters as they look to the year ahead, a survey reveals.

The findings from Goodlord found that 87% of tenants named the rising cost of rent as a key concern.

Goodlord says the average rent for a home in England is £1,071 – that’s 8.7% higher than at the same time last year.

With high inflation and a limited supply of homes to rent, growing numbers of tenants are feeling the strain of rising prices.

‘Concerns about how they will cope with potential rent increases’

Tom Mundy, Goodlord’s COO, said: “Against the backdrop of the cost-of-living crisis, it’s clear tenants across the UK have significant concerns about how they will cope with potential rent increases in 2023, with the lack of rental stock – a concern also shared by letting agents – following not far behind.

“As the industry prepares for another busy year, with demand in the rental market showing little sign of diminishing, it’s clear that incentives to boost stock are acutely needed.”

Mr Mundy points to a recently published open letter from 385 letting agents to Michael Gove calling for more support for the rental sector to help stop the number of landlords leaving the sector – a big factor which is contributing to lack of rental supply and the rising cost of rents.

The difficulty of finding a home to rent

The survey also reveals the next highest concern cited by renters and that is the difficulty of finding a home to rent, which 51% of tenants said they were worried.

There are growing fears that an increasing number of landlords will leave the buy-to-let market this year in response to rising mortgage costs and increasingly complex regulatory requirements.

This will increase the pressure on housing stock and lead to more competition for tenants to find a home.

Condition of their rental homes is also a worry

Goodlord says that 42% of tenants complain that the condition of their rental homes is also a worry, and 24% expressed concern about their legal rights and protection against eviction in 2023.

These are issues that many tenants are hoping to be addressed in the Renters’ Reform Bill which will be published this year.

In addition to economic uncertainty and rising interest rates, 28% of respondents say they are worried about the difficulties of getting onto the housing ladder.


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Comments

Gromit

12:15 PM, 12th January 2023, About A year ago

Introduction of the Renter Reform Bill is highly likely to drive more Landlords out of the market, and excerbate the current shortage. That'll in turn result in rent increasing still further.
Tenants be careful what you wish for!

John Grefe

12:26 PM, 12th January 2023, About A year ago

Doesn't anyone remember the days of "rent controls"? That killed the market and didn't do any favours????

Crouchender

13:14 PM, 12th January 2023, About A year ago

Whilst I sympathise that there is a 'cost of living' crisis ( hich appears not be home grown ( ie Blame Russia / China virus spread etc). The 'cost of renting crisis' is home grown. Whether that is overzealous Councils with borough-wide licensing money making schemes or government short termism towards landlords as investors/tax targets and not treating use like Business people.. ie Over regulate the market (RRB) then business people go else where.
As Business people we will logically have to charge what the market demands (when supply is on a downwards spiral) as our business costs have gone up too. We are not charities.

Jack Craven

13:25 PM, 12th January 2023, About A year ago

Why is it that every other day I read about landlords expanding their portfolios and the next day I read that they are selling up. Is it that some landlords are buying from other landlords, in which case there is still the same amount of houses to rent, or if not where are all the new buyers coming from?

Crouchender

13:35 PM, 12th January 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Jack Craven at 12/01/2023 - 13:25
Recently, every time I let out 50% claim their landlord is genuinely selling . That's why there are moving.

Jo Westlake

13:54 PM, 12th January 2023, About A year ago

Goodlord says the average rent for a home in England is £1,071 – that’s 8.7% higher than at the same time last year.

Isn't that lower than the general rate of inflation so in real terms makes rent cheaper (compared to other things) than it was a year ago?

Michael Johnson - Amzac Estates

15:10 PM, 12th January 2023, About A year ago

We are defiantly trying to reduce the amount of residential property that we have in our portfolio. The interesting part is that we completed on 4 sales between 1st November 2022 to 19th December 2022. Of these 4, one was sold to an owner occupier who was downsizing , one block of five flats was sold to a short term letting operator who immediately gave all the tenants a section 21 notice, one was sold to an overseas investor who has an agent managing their portfolio and the last property was sold to an active student landlord who was managing his own portfolio.
This is an effective 50% reduction in the amount of available residential accommodation, the point I want to make is that not all rented property is being sold to other residential landlords so this constant reduction in supply is going to have an effect over the longer term.

Ian Simpson

7:56 AM, 14th January 2023, About A year ago

Reply to the comment left by Michael Johnson - Amzac Estates at 12/01/2023 - 15:10
Yes, we too are down-sizing. I managed to shift five HMOs this year, originally providing 32 homes. Only one has remained an HMO, the others all had cash payments made to the tenants by the new owners to get them all out, then were re-furbished and sold on to owner-occupiers, so now only 8 rental rooms remain and four owner-occupied homes. Lucky the UK's population is not exploding .... Ooops, it actually is!!

Well done Michael Gove and the Tory anti-landlord government

Paul

11:08 AM, 14th January 2023, About A year ago

I know I need to sell one, perhaps two of my properties held in my name due to the changes in tax. I don't need to do it urgently and will do this when the market starts to show an upturn. Why ? Not being able to offsest mortgage costs even when my overall portfolio has a 22% LTV.

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