Landlords selling up rental properties

nanna8

That Thatcher woman had no idea of the long term results of selling off public housing. That, or she didn’t give a toss. Probably time to reinstate some of it and rebuild.

Yes Mrs Thatcher did a wrong thing there. Giving discounts too, not a good move.

That Thatcher woman had no idea of the long term results of selling off public housing. That, or she didn’t give a toss. Probably time to reinstate some of it and rebuild.

There are plenty of bigger houses being built and, nowadays, the difference in heating bills should be slight. Remember most of us live in houses more than 20 years old and many more than 100 years old.

As for size, nearly all the houses, we looked at were 4-5 bedroomed houses costing over £400,000. Nearly all had a study measuring 8ft by 4ft or similar size that would be space better used to make a hallway or extend the kitchen.

As some one pointed out up thread people, even people working from home, work sitting anywhere in the house or go out to cafes. On Friday we were down at a beach cafe and a couple were sitting in a prime table with a view over the sea with their computers and in work clothes holding a meeting.

I still think we should have mimimum sizes and standards for space like the old Parker Morris standards, which were for council housing. If its good enough for council tenants. it is good enough for those who buy their houses.

DD first home was an ex-Council flat built in the 1950s, I think to the PM standards. When she sold that she bought an ex council house in the first Garden city, designed and built by the original Garden city architects. Both small and compact but with room to move around.

It is probably obvious to say that Parker Morris standards for social housing were abolished by the Conservatives in 1980.

Many of the houses we are building today are the slums of tomorrow.

We could build larger properties but they cost more to build and to run, there so much more other social spending that needs to be made. The quality of social housing is pretty good today, certainly better than private rentals of the same size. After WW2 a lot of prefabs were built, maybe a revival of that would help, as long as the quality was good.

dalrymplemethods of funding can change. I see no reason why local authorities or HA should pick up the tab.

The government pay housing benefit to those on UC. Since none of the people renting council/HA housing would be claiming HB as their rent would be tied to their income, the relevant housing bodies should be able to claim the income shortfall from the government, possibly through the benefit system.

But, Monica - the housing associations are not for profit but have to break even. If rents were subsidised and based on incomes, the Council Tax payers would have to pick up the tab. Is this fair?

I agree that modern houses have minute rooms and not fit for purpose. I presume that is it so that builders can get more houses on an acre of land. We have just moved from an eight bedroomed Victorian house, with spacious rooms. I could not live in one of those rabbit hutches. Estate agents used wide angled lenses, to make things look bigger. Wrong.

We are currently in a very expensive rental (not from choice but because it was the only one we found which would take dogs). It was, and in my view still is, uninhabitable. No working shower, no heating as the boiler is too old and dangerous, no television as the aerial is ancient and broken, there was a hole the size of three dinner plates in the middle of the landing and the oven and hob could not be used at the same time, as the fuses blew.

But then the other thing is that is now taking an inordinately long time to buy a house. Why? We found a super property, put in an offer at the beginning of July which was accepted, but have been told that nothing will happen until October. What? The landlady wants us out and has issued a Section 21 as she wants to sell. I understand this but what are we supposed to do? Any advice gratefully received..

Before Mrs Thatcher started selling Council houses 30 % of households had a secure roof over their heads by renting a council house.

Rents they could afford and security of tenure made life secure for a significant part of the population who could not and never would either be able to afford to buy a home of have enough security of employment to do so. Now that figure is down to 17%.

I would like to see at least 1 million of the 1.5 million houses we are being promised over the next 5 years to be social housing. I would like to see social housing rents tied to income so that those on lower incomes are not forced into poverty by the size of their rent or even unable to afford to rent social housing.

Many of those struggling to get on the housing ladder or unable to have children because of the cost of buying a house or renting would be so much better off with a secure social house and an affordable rent.

Sociaal housing was introduced to this country to remedy the ills of families crammed into slums because they could not afford to rent decent housing. The clock has gone right back to those conditions today.

I would also bring back Parker Morris standards, or something similar for all housing social and market. I recently went round a number of houses on a big new development , all from different builders and I was appalled by the size of the rooms. They looked lovely with all the specialldownsized furniture made for use in show houses, but a few weeks later I visited relation who had just bought one and was absolutely appalled by how tiny the rooms were in this not bottom of the market 4 bedroomed house were. Even with just two people not overburdened with possessions, once real people with real furniture and possessions, like clothes, kitchen equipment etc moved in, it was almost impossible to walk round without having to thread between furniture.

We have the smallest homes in Europe. This is not something to be proud of.

Here it’s rentals suitable for families that is really short, a lot of properties are converted into multiple occupancy, 2 sometimes 3 apartments in one house.
For a family on basic wages the only real choice is social housing, even then it’s hard to save for a deposit on a pla

Is there someone you can contact to complain about the landlord because I am sure the young couple are afraid to do so in case he kicks them out. They are a lovely couple and the young man is on dialysis and we never see anyone visiting them, they seem to be on their own.

Don't know about that BigMama but be careful as the LL might think a complaint came from the tenants even if it didn't.

Maybe you could contact the LL again to remind him of his promise & subtly suggest you're looking into regulations on repairing (even if you're not).

NittWitt

^By selling rental properties, it will mean more properties for sale and prices will come down with a trickle down effect to help first time buyers. That's the theory anyway.^

In my area, that hasn't happened as it's a popular holiday destination.
As cheap 'n' cheerful rentals came up for sale, they've been bought and made into smartly polished holiday rentals instead.

Indeed.

Here rentals sell quickly for quite considerable sums, smartened up.

By selling rental properties, it will mean more properties for sale and prices will come down with a trickle down effect to help first time buyers. That's the theory anyway.

In my area, that hasn't happened as it's a popular holiday destination.
As cheap 'n' cheerful rentals came up for sale, they've been bought and made into smartly polished holiday rentals instead.

Oops.... very few properties.

My granddaughter bought a house because it was so much cheaper to pay off a mortgage than paying rent. Unfortunately interest rates climb and means they are not very secure. A worry because they have 3 babies under school age. The minimum rental is around $500 per week for something very basic - about £250. Two bedrooms and a shower, no good for families.

In this area private rentals are very short, all the regulations and agents fees + taxation put most off letting. I do have 2 small apartments that cannot be separated from the main building, I’ve just refurbished one, over the years I’ve had good and bad tenants, single men seem to stay longest.

I do have a lot of sympathy for families in short term let’s moving causes chaos.

I know it varies from area to area, but round here there are very properties coming on the market to buy.

It may be because I am looking for a bungalow. I search Rightmove several times a day.

We don't have 'supers' to reinvest into, however, we've sold up several rentals recently, all sold quickly, we profited well. Timing is everything.

M0nica

callistemon not a slump, but certainly houses at the bottom of the market may drop a bit, which will just make it easier for many first time buyers to get on housing ladder. Most rental properties will have been rental for at least five years so the chances that any buy to let landlords will make a loss is limited.

Yes, not a bad thing except for those who may have bought fairly recently and may need to sell fod whatever reason.

Try the local council, housing dept somewhere I would imagine. The house may not be fit for human occupation until work is done.

There are two rental properties on the street where I live, one is fantastic and has been modernised to a high specification and is £1300 per month and the other, well goodness knows how much a month because the landlord does beggar all with it and it is an absolute eyesore, the people renting are a very young couple and I feel so sorry for them, the landlord is taking advantage. Last year, when the previous tenants moved out and the young couple moved in, I went to see the landlord with my next door neighbour and asked him to start renovating the outside of the property as it looked atrocious. He said he would but never did, money for old rope comes to mind. All some landlords want is money each month for doing nothing. I have not seen sight or sound of him since the couple moved in.

Is there someone you can contact to complain about the landlord because I am sure the young couple are afraid to do so in case he kicks them out. They are a lovely couple and the young man is on dialysis and we never see anyone visiting them, they seem to be on their own.

callistemon not a slump, but certainly houses at the bottom of the market may drop a bit, which will just make it easier for many first time buyers to get on housing ladder. Most rental properties will have been rental for at least five years so the chances that any buy to let landlords will make a loss is limited.

Here in Boston, nearly every older, terraced house that comes up for sale is bought in order to become a rented property, many become HOMO, like the one next door to me.

nanna8 There are restrictions on ‘ordinary’overseas people buying property in Australia though. I’m not exactly sure of the exact restrictions but if we wanted to buy anything but a new property I don’t think we could.

Although Labour are just as globalist as the last lot....
What do you mean by this Freya5?

Anywhere around here (outer SW London) rents have soared during the last couple of years. Some of it happened before the rise in interest rates so I don’t believe it’s just that. At least some of it is down to sheer greed - because they can - there’s a general shortage of rental properties, let alone decent, affordable ones.

In an area I watch closely, I know from Land Reg records that a good percentage of rental properties were bought when prices were much lower, by which I mean 50% or even more, so that means even less reason for whacking rents up due to IR rises.

As for blocks of flats bought up by foreigners who don’t live in them or even rent them out (merely use them as a handy place to park their cash) it’s high time action was taken. There are many such in London.

I wish we’d take a leaf out of Denmark’s book and ban foreigners from buying property unless they’ve lived in the country for 5 years.

I say all this as a LL myself, albeit of just one property, where the rent is now considerably lower than the local market rate, and has been for a few years now. To us it’s been well worth it for very good tenants who have wanted to stay.

biglouis

There is legislation on the horizon which means that LLs will not be able to rent out property with less than a "C" category insulation after 2030. The Tories abandoned this legislation but Labour are pretty keen to re-establish it. Many LLs will sell rather than carry our the required improvements in older properties. In theory this means that cheap(er) properties will come onto the market which are of less interest to developers. An announcement is expected on monday.

That will probably cause a slump in house prices.