What happens to the houses landlords are selling up?

I have a friend lives in a lovely rented cottage the middle one of three. She is elderly has a fantastic landlord who looks after her and the property. Earlier this year she was very upset when the owner of the cottages either side gave notice to the tenants who had lived there for years and had never been any trouble. She was also worried she might also be evicted but was reassured that would not happen.
Since her neighbours moved out with I might add many tears the properties were put up for sale, boards erected in the front gardens,
Despite a few viewings those properties are still standing empty, the gardens are neglected windows uncleaned and my friend a nervous wreck isolated and lonely.
Oh yes, the for sale boards are still there, one lying flat and the other at an angle.
Two unhappy families and I should imagine one very unhappy and perhaps regretful cottage owner.

I did say occupy, they may be bought by councils though.

I haven’t read through the whole thread, so apologies if this has already been discussed.

I let out properties. My tenants have been in years. There’s no way I would sell from underneath them!
I imagine a lot of landlords have buy to let mortgages, that due to rising mortgage costs, they can now longer afford to keep. Hopefully they’ll be bought by decent landlords who CAN afford to keep them.

Most new housing estates near us include a fairly substantial portion of social housing. The rents are still steepish but at least the tenants have reasonable security.

I did look at becoming a landlord when I remarried and bought a new house with the new husband, but backed out because of the problem of getting rid of bad tenants. Shame, because the 4 bedroom family house I sold was bought by a single bloke. Hopefully he'll find love and have kids, but no guarantee. But the sins of the few totten renters lead to a high price paid by the many.

nanna8

They were discussing how in the UK you can rent a place with a long term lease of 5 - 10 years. Here leases are renewed every 12 months which is a very insecure situation for the renters. They were saying your system is much better for renters than here. Up until recently most people here would buy but that has changed in the last 15 years. I pity the young ones now with entry level houses $7-800,000. So many stay home until in their late 20s and 30s now. Unheard of when we were young.

The leasing laws are under review in England and likely to follow the Scottish example. Since 2017 in Scotland the lease has no set term, just conditions on ending it. This prevents landlords from evicting in order to raise rents (rent rises are also strictly controlled). Whilst working in favour of tenants it is causing private landlords to evict and sells (one of the few conditions where they can evict). Who buys them? The many, many people competing for the same lack of housing stock at highly inflated prices.

Depending on the area some houses are being used as Airbnb rentals; a relative in a seaside town in Devon bought his mother’s house when she wanted to downsize, refurbished it and he lets it out for around £150 a night, more in the summer months. I don’t know what the rules are regarding council tax for such properties. In university towns HMOs are very popular, our granddaughter rented a six bedroomed house in Southampton when she was university there; each student paid £100 a week plus an agreed sum for utilities, the amount would be more now as this was six years ago. If students occupy the house it is exempt from council tax and although the house was quite modern and in a nice area the landlord spent very little on the upkeep, the decor was very shabby and he didn’t even have the grass cut.

Norah

I don't remember 10-15% rates, perhaps I'm too old.

Were baby boomers actually impacted negatively?

We were paying 16% in 1985/6. And yes it impacted us negatively. It very nearly bankrupted us.

It wasn't just those with mortgages of course. All borrowing costs were high so firms went out of business. People lost jobs in the private age sector which meant that they couldn't pay their mortgage. Can anyone remember the lists of firm closures and job loses read out at the end of the News at Ten. Awful time.

I remember DH trying to explain to his parents how we were struggling to keeps up with mortgage repayments, pay bills, keep an old banger on the road and feed the family. His parents simply didn't get it. They thought the interest they were getting on savings was good. My DDad did understand. They hadn't got much spare money themselves but he still bough winter coats and shoes for all of their grandchildren and turned up with £200 in cash just before Christmas.

Don't know where 'age' came from.

nanna8

They were discussing how in the UK you can rent a place with a long term lease of 5 - 10 years. Here leases are renewed every 12 months which is a very insecure situation for the renters. They were saying your system is much better for renters than here. Up until recently most people here would buy but that has changed in the last 15 years. I pity the young ones now with entry level houses $7-800,000. So many stay home until in their late 20s and 30s now. Unheard of when we were young.

I am not sure were this idea that we have 5-10 year leases in the Uk comes from.

Most lenders will not allow landlords with a mortgage let a property for more than one, or occasionally, 2 years. This is because if the landlord defaults on the mortgage the lender wants to be able to sell the property with vacant possession. Selling a house with a sitting tenant can halve its value, so the lender may not get all their money back.

Some people have rolling tenancies with no set end date, just going from month to month. These are the people who suffer when the landlord needs to sell, or occupy the property themselves and they get served a section 21(?) no fault eviction notice.

DD is currently(trying) to buy a house which has a tenant with a fixed length tenancy that does not expire until next February. when she made her offer, she understood that a section 21(?) notice had been served on the tenant, who would be moving out within a few weeks.

She is hanging on because the house is her dream house and the price is just about affordable because, having been tenanted for some years, it is run down and needs renovation.

It never was easy getting your first house, you always had the take a risk and hope it would improve and mostly it did repossessions due to over borrowing were few. Today many thousands of new houses are being built, many are selling off plans, they ARE selling, they ARE affordable.

First time buyers have a problem, single parents with children mostly have only one choice that’s social housing of some kind. My wife’s son, married both working, 2 children, modest wages. They have the deposit but repayments are beyond their reach so it’s social housing for them too. They will need a 3 bed house in a couple of years so we hope interest rates will be lower and they can buy.

We’re lucky in this area the housing association are good and if you can pay an “affordable rent” you move up the list quickly.

JaneJudge

Let’s not race to the bottom
People who bought houses to rent out took a risk or a business decision. If they sell, someone will buy them.
MissA you are not the problem. The problem was the LAs did not replace the housing stock not the scheme itself. Live happy in your own home and don’t let the bastards get you down

I wholeheartedly agree!

I think all discussion about unaffordable house prices is based on housing in the south east. Get out of the south east and into the midlands and north of Engkand and the average house price almost halves.

Then remember first time buyers are not buying houses selling at the average price they tend to be buying the houses in the bottom 20% of the market.

Certainly when we were struggling to get on the housing ladder, we were looking at the cheapest houses on the market. DS's first flat was the cheapest property on the market in the town he was buying in, there was a reason, but we had a solution.

GrannyRose15

Norah

I don't remember 10-15% rates, perhaps I'm too old.

Were baby boomers actually impacted negatively?

We were paying 16% in 1985/6. And yes it impacted us negatively. It very nearly bankrupted us.

I'm sorry.

I'm older, and grateful our home was paid prior to 1980.

The higher interest rates, plus job uncertainties for DH propelled me back to work a year or two earlier than planned, for which I was very grateful.It enabled me to get going on a good career path and build up a good pension before being prematurely catapaulted in to 'voluntary' redundancy and early retirement.

missdeke

It's a terrible situation. It's time for the government to fund social housing, Only permit new builds with a 50% social housing share, too many building companies are making profits out of a desperate housing situation. Empty ex private rentals should be offered to local councils first before going for private sale so that social housing stocks could be increased. Already councils are placing people in private rental properties as they cannot house enough people in their own properties.

I agree. Labour must fund Councils to build social housing on a large scale otherwise lots of people will be condemned to live in substandard privately-rented houses, multiple occupation houses and b&b. The Tories sold off Council houses to undermine the Labour vote on Council estates and Blair should have reversed the policy.

About 1/4 of houses round here are covered in scaffolding having loft/side/back extensions. So much cheaper than moving, houses are so expensive here

I am selling my inherited flat. Last year i asked the local council to buy it back they
said try us next year so i did. This time they said they are only interested in 3 bedrooms
Not 2.

GrannyRose15

Norah

I don't remember 10-15% rates, perhaps I'm too old.

Were baby boomers actually impacted negatively?

We were paying 16% in 1985/6. And yes it impacted us negatively. It very nearly bankrupted us.

It was a very difficult time, the late 1970s/80s, GrannyRose15; we had to move to a far more expensive area, reluctantly I should add, and had a lot of extra expenses too. I remember 1980 as Annus Horribilis.

Janetashbolt

About 1/4 of houses round here are covered in scaffolding having loft/side/back extensions. So much cheaper than moving, houses are so expensive here

People extend their home many times here as well. We've added up (Mansard), out (Conservatory, and the whole length.

Far more reasonable than moving house, imo.

I was borrowing a lot in late 70s on, with very high inflation it was a very good move, inflation very quickly overtook interest rate. So as long as inflation has been high borrowing has never bothered me.

We got into the BTL business when it occurred to us that it would be the answer to the problem of living in a tied house.
We rented out for years before DH gave up work and then we moved into it.
We had great tenants and horrific ones.
We were really lucky, we seemed to get tenants who were always moving on so only had to give notice to two tenants who had trashed the place. It really is amazing what some of them think is a good idea!
I always felt sorry for those who had no security of tenure, I would have hated to live with that uncertainty.
Eventually when I sold my business(including a property) we moved into the house we live in now and sold our BTL to our daughter who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford to buy.
Unfortunately this meant that that our retirement spending money was rather depleted, OK very depleted but her family is safe now.
So, to answer the question…. That’s what happened to this particular BTL.

GrannyRose15

Norah

I don't remember 10-15% rates, perhaps I'm too old.

Were baby boomers actually impacted negatively?

We were paying 16% in 1985/6. And yes it impacted us negatively. It very nearly bankrupted us.

Yes, same here. We married in 1980 and got the keys to our first house in 1979, a couple of months before rates went sky high. Each time we moved (only twice after that), the same thing happened, and we were locked into high mortgage rates because we were scared that they'd go even higher. I knew a few people who lost their homes, and the spectre of that was awful, particularly as we lived in an area with high unemployment and starting again would have been difficult.

Just as we paid off our mortgage interest rates dropped. Good news for people still paying, but it made it much more difficult to save significant amounts. Someone buying even ten years earlier than us would have paid a lot less for an equivalent house, had much lower interest rates at the start of mortgages (when they are most expensive) and then had the benefit of high interest on their savings at the end. Twenty years before us would have been better still.

But our children could say the same about us. They have comparatively low mortgage rates, but given the size of their mortgages the monthly sums going out are eye watering. Lower interest rates make it more difficult to save for deposits, too, and rents are very high, which adds to the problem. We got married from home and didn't rent our own places beforehand, but that is relatively rare these days. Things change.

Seamus89

Granmarderby10

I find it incredible even after 45 years that the government ever allowed or encouraged the sale of council houses.
And without any obligation to build any more.
It just…😓

The tragedy is that Councils were forbidden from building replacement housing and ever since have been drained of funds .

Thank you Seamus89. It’s a tragedy that in this thread there are still people blaming local authorities for not using the funds from the sale of their housing stock to build new. It was a dreadful policy