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People Are Baffled By These Landlords’ Interviews As Rental Costs Are Spiraling Out Of Control
A popular standard for budgeting says you should spend a maximum of 30% of your monthly income on rent. But a lot of people in many places across the world find it hard to follow.
After a wave of “pandemic pricing” during much of 2020, rents started to climb in 2021 and into the middle of last year as people came back to urban life for in-person work and learning. Would-be homeowners remained renters because they were simply priced out of buying a home and an overall lack of housing sent rents soaring.
But videos released online by UK outlet Novara Media suggest there’s another element to it — greed. In their interviews, the landlords tell the reporter that their investment properties are “fantastic” at the moment because prices are skyrocketing.
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With few vacancies and rapidly rising prices, renters are facing a crisis in many places all over the world
Image credits: novaramedia
But this British landlord couldn’t be happier
Interviewer: How are things in the market for you at the moment?
Landlord: Very good. Yeah, the rentals are fantastic.
Interviewer: Because rents are going up and up, I’ve heard?
Landlord: Exactly. Yes.
Interviewer: How have your tenants reacted to the increase in the rent?
Image credits: novaramedia
Landlord: Not too good. Not too good.
Interviewer: What was their reaction?
Landlord: Well, they might not be able to afford the rent.
Interviewer: If push comes to shove, would you be willing to wave goodbye?
Image credits: novaramedia
Landlord: Um, I think so, yes. I mean, they can be replaced very easily because there just aren’t enough properties to go around at the moment so people are sort of, you know, they’re totally going crazy, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get a property to live in.’
Interviewer: So you think they might be going crazy because the cost of living is spiraling?
Landlord: Yeah, exactly. So it’s very, very high, but it actually is the agent that puts the rent up, not myself. So I think it’s done automatically after a year.
@novaramedia A landlord admits that it is okay if their tenants can’t pay the bills because they can “be replaced very easily”. @RivkahBrown spoke to a landlord at the National Landlord Investment Show in London. #landlords #housing #housingcrisis #uk #politics ♬ original sound – Novara Media
And the woman isn’t the only landlord who’s glad about the current situation in the market
Image credits: novaramedia
Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a successful landlord?
Landlord: I’ve got five or six mixed properties. Commercial, residential. So yeah, success. I’m making a bit of money.
Interviewer: Have you had to increase your rent? At the moment, I know rates are going up, etc.
Landlord: I’ve not had to, but the management agent I use is basically coming to me and saying, you know, we can get X amount more this year.
Image credits: novaramedia
Interviewer: You didn’t personally feel like you needed to, but that was an opportunity to, so you sort of took it?
Landlord: Absolutely. I’m quite fortunate. I sold my business six years ago, so I’ve got very little in the way of finance loans. It’s all personal money. So I’m quite fortunate in that, I haven’t got mortgages on the property, so didn’t have to increase the rents, but just following the market trends, really.
Image credits: novaramedia
Interviewer: I mean, you know, it’s a cost of living crisis at the moment. Rates are spiraling. Do you think that renters or landlords have a tougher time of it at the moment?
Landlord: Again, I’m quite fortunate in that. I don’t have any real lending or mortgages, so I’m not affected by the increased interest rates. I think, renters certainly, yeah.
Image credits: novaramedia
Interviewer: Have you ever considered giving your renters a reduction because of their kind of cost of living crisis?
Landlord: I should say yes. No, ultimately, this is an income stream for me. I’ve worked hard to get that income in the first place. So no, I need the income now. I’ve stopped working. I’ve effectively semi-retired from my main job, so I do need that income. So the short answer is no.
@novaramedia A landlord with multiple properties admits that he didn’t “have to increase” rents but did it anyway. Rivkah Brown spoke go a landlord at the National Landlord Investment Show in London today. #landlords #housing #housingcrisis #uk #ukpolitics ♬ original sound – Novara Media
In Britain, where these interviews were taken, on average there are 20 people requesting to view each rental property that comes on the market, more than triple what it was in 2019. In some northwest parts of the country, that number reaches even 30 per property. Moving house has always been stressful, but it has become an all-consuming battle for many people as rents rise and demand outweighs supply.
According to a survey conducted by Citizens Advice, in the year leading up to June, private rents across England increased by 4.5%, marking the highest annual rise in a decade. But this is just the average — for members of the London Renters Union, the reported increase was 20.5%. With every passing quarter, records continue to be broken – at the start of this year, for the first time, average asking rents in London hit a record of £2,501 ($3,148) a month. Mortgage payers spend 22% of their income on housing compared with 33% among private renters (42% in London).
The UK is a vivid example of what happens when there is very little regulation and protection for renters. But those who seek solutions, do find them. In Denmark, for example, renters can stay in their homes indefinitely; in France, landlords cannot issue evictions in the winter months; landlords in Germany cannot charge 10% more than the average rent for similar properties in the area; and social rents set the norm for private rents in Sweden.
After watching these videos, TikTokers were absolutely appalled
Eventually, the clips spread to other platforms, continuing the discussion
What do you think ?
Rachel Ainsworth 1 year ago
There more money we spend on housing, the less we're have to spend on everything else. If housing halved in price, poverty would be greatly reduced. Why doesn't the government provide cheap housing? Because all the politicians are landlords. Politicians want rents to be high.
Marcellus II 1 year ago
I've stopped using the sexist term "landlord", and stuck to the more appropriate "landbastard". You should too.
Anne Reid 1 year ago (edited)
My late husband preferred to call ourselves slumlords (but slum bastardos would have been better!) when we owned a condo that we rented out because we charged only what the mortgage cost. It was well below average rates. When I went to sell it, my tenant was offered a sweet deal, but demanded it be sold for less than what my husband paid for it “since you didn’t know him back then, it won’t cost you anything.” I sold it for the going rate, picking empty nesters who were downsizing from a house. I turned down higher offers from what my realtor suspected were house flippers or Air B&B owners. It’s not hard to decide to not be a predator.
Load More Replies...
Islandchild 1 year ago
While I understand what the guy is saying and know that business-wise he's right. We couldn't do it. Our management company told us we could up the rent a fair bit but we chose not to. We've a great long term tenant that we'd rather keep than deal with the unknown. Maybe it'd be different if we had multiple properties.
Rachel Ainsworth 1 year ago
There more money we spend on housing, the less we're have to spend on everything else. If housing halved in price, poverty would be greatly reduced. Why doesn't the government provide cheap housing? Because all the politicians are landlords. Politicians want rents to be high.
Marcellus II 1 year ago
I've stopped using the sexist term "landlord", and stuck to the more appropriate "landbastard". You should too.
Anne Reid 1 year ago (edited)
My late husband preferred to call ourselves slumlords (but slum bastardos would have been better!) when we owned a condo that we rented out because we charged only what the mortgage cost. It was well below average rates. When I went to sell it, my tenant was offered a sweet deal, but demanded it be sold for less than what my husband paid for it “since you didn’t know him back then, it won’t cost you anything.” I sold it for the going rate, picking empty nesters who were downsizing from a house. I turned down higher offers from what my realtor suspected were house flippers or Air B&B owners. It’s not hard to decide to not be a predator.
Load More Replies... Islandchild 1 year ago
While I understand what the guy is saying and know that business-wise he's right. We couldn't do it. Our management company told us we could up the rent a fair bit but we chose not to. We've a great long term tenant that we'd rather keep than deal with the unknown. Maybe it'd be different if we had multiple properties.
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