http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-11796870


I would think a shorter period of three months would be better. Also taking control of the property for twenty years with a cap on payments to owners would force then to either sell or take tenants. It might help if owners are responsible for council taxes if there are no tenants and there are no exclusions to get out of payment. So none of the ripping the roof off scams.

Like that will happen.

Landlords are now getting prospective tennants to enter into closed bidding wars on how much they're willing to pay for rent.

Yes in some areas I can see that happening. Also with benefit claimants chasing few properties those will inevitably increase so the expected savings may never happen.

If a property is empty then it should be taken in to use by a council or housing association. There are far too many empty properties around the country. If rented they could hold down rents and the costs of housing benefit.

I was listening to the Housing minister this morning on the radio, about how rents have risen in areas with the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) and where it has dropped in areas without an LHA. If I see it right, the landlords have taken advantage of the fact that the council pre announce rent limits so they have increased the rents to maximise the income from the LHA. Why take £70 when you know they will give the tenant up to £80 for example? Why not just increase the rent to £80? Whereas elsewhere everyone has to accept the market rents, landlords and tenants alike. Though the amusing thing is that they love rising property prices (ie bubbles) yet hate the impact on housing benefit.

True, I've experienced that myself earlier this year. The landlord advertised the property for 650pcm, I applied and he rang me to say there had been more than one applicant would I consider paying 675? I said yes (at this point I'd spent four weeks in a bloody hotel).
He rang back later that day and said he'd been offered 700, would I go to 725? I called him a scamming b*****d and told him to eff off.
My company was paying for the rent, so it didn't matter to me financially, but I hate greedy scamming slimeballs.

Thing is rent rates are still going up in this climate. Probably because no bugger can get a mortgage, due to an entirely different class of greedy scamming slimeballs.

Yes but they are unsustainable. If wages are stagnant or falling there is no way that rents can exceed peoples ability to pay for them. It might be the case in some locations like central London, and in crowded urban areas. What is happening is that the whole private rental sector is dependant on a permanent zero interest rate policy. The problem with that is it is toxic to other sectors of the economy. Once interest rates start to climb then it will mean the ending of the buy to let dream for many landlords as their properties fall in value and they cannot raise rentals to cover mortgages. Thirty years ago it was possible to buy a house with a single persons wages, now it requires two wages. Add in that people have had to move to get the jobs they also lack the family networks to help them with child care. For governments they have had the simple policy of following total GDP as a target, which was easier to achieve with everyone working, so hence the policy of getting women to work. As a result house prices have reached their peak and rents will only increase for a short while before the economy unravels and then they collapse.

Yeah, when interest rates start to rise, I expect them to rise steeply in a very short time frame.

I got a letter from the letting agent a couple of months ago, informing me they were raising my rent to £850. I replied and threatened to move out, and they backed off. This suggests to me that the whole renting thing is reaching it's zenith, and they were not confident about getting another tenant within the one month notice period.

You can still get them on a single wage - I've just done that - although it was a stretch. It means my wife's earnings were not taken into account, which hopefully gives us a little slack.

Yep, don't I know it. We've never bothered with hiring in babysitters before, as we were close to our parents homes. Different story now.

Yes but they they will not be sustainable. Everyone will move. Empty flats generate no income, yet they still have mortgage interest to pay. I cant see rents being able to go up far with the exception of areas of really high demand, but even in London as benefit claimants are driven out those working will be able to rent for possibly even less than the benefit claimants paid. If they were able to offer more then they would have been offered the place, even if there were no claimants in the area. What it will do is cause rents to fall. Simple supply and demand, the demand from claimants will have evaporated as they are moved to new ghettos.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. What I meant to say was..

I am not so sure. Yes they could rise rapidly as they have in the past, but they could start in the summer with a 0.25% increase as a warning of things to come. People might panic and they may not have to increase them as fast. These are not normal times. Though if they do rise fast there will be a surge in repossessions.

I was looking at the cost of rentals in Ireland. You could get a furnished 3 bed house for €450 per month in Co Cork. Okay Cork is not a great place to find work. While Ireland has had a spectacular property bubble it has already fallen by 50% in the last two years and experts expect another 20% fall in Irish property values, making a total fall of 70% from the peak. I can not see many having much equity if they had a mortgage. Even here I expect another 20 to 30% fall in residential property. Though it could take a few years rather than the steep crash that Ireland are going to suffer.