MSE News: Rising number in rent arrears 29 December 2011 at 4:15PM in House Buying, Renting & Selling 18 replies 3.8K views

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

Read the full story:
Rising number in rent arrears

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

The news article title is incorrect and misleading.

The number of people in arrears has fallen.

From the article....

"The overall tenant population has coped relatively well with rising rents and soaring living costs - with total arrears actually down year on year in November.

shortchanged_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

The news article title is incorrect and misleading.

The number of people in arrears has fallen.

From the article....

If you read the article Hamish it states that the number of those who are in serious rent arrears has risen.

It's pretty obvious really as I have previously stated. The rental market will mirror the housing market. Why some people think that renters have a bottomless pit of money to pay ever increasing rents I don't know.

There will be a limit to what people can afford and rent prices will either eventually plateau out i.e peak prices or they will drop off as more and more people struggle to pay the rents being charged.

Remembering all this at a time when disposable income is decreasing for most, particularly renters because they are not even getting most of the benefits of the very low interest rates.

Yorkie1

And don't forget the change in LHA from April (?) which will affect renters too.

Pincher

It would be interesting to know how many of the non-arears are paid by housing benefit.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

shortchanged wrote: »

If you read the article Hamish it states that the number of those who are in serious rent arrears has risen.
.

The number of people in serious arrears has risen from 1.9% of private renters last year to 2.2% of private renters at the end of this year.

In other words, from a ridiculously tiny percentage to a surprisingly tiny percentage.

However the total number of people in arrears, or who made a payment late, has fallen from 11% some months ago to 9.3% today.

The headline of the article is false and misleading because it states that the number of people in arrears has risen, when it has in fact fallen, and fallen quite significantly.

The article title should state that the number of people in arrears has fallen.

furndire

As more people who are renting lose their jobs the problem is going to get far worse. We already have a middle aged couple who downsized to a 2 bedroom house, lost his job, & has now been told they are only allowed 1 room accommodation to get their rent paid - which in this area is £71+. It will certainly get worse in April.
People on benefits who are already getting their rents paid will be ok - so long as they don't want to move. People with children will also still be ok.

breadlinebetty

Renting is more expensive than taking out a mortgage - and you get nothing back at the end of it all! All you get is rent INCREASES while those with mortgages end up paying peanuts each month - until they've bought it outright and don't have to pay a penny more of course!

Loopgames

We have so far had a problem in housing buying market but now we are seeing increasing problems in the rental markets too.

Is there a tipping point where rents will go down or stagnate as the property prices have done?

Loopgames

breadlinebetty wrote: »

Renting is more expensive than taking out a mortgage - and you get nothing back at the end of it all! All you get is rent INCREASES while those with mortgages end up paying peanuts each month - until they've bought it outright and don't have to pay a penny more of course!

It depends on what you rent..if you rent a small property to save a deposit for a larger property in the future then the rental route proves to work for you.

If you rent a property that ideally you owned for the long term e.g. a 4 bedroom house then it will not look so advantageous from a financial perspective.

I could rent a 2 bedroom flat for say £750pm but want to buy a bedroom house which rents for £1200. I would rent the smaller dwelling for a period of time and save enough of a deposit to buy the house I would want to live in for the longer term.

There's pros and cons to both it is all about your circumstances and how you manage your life to suit your aims.

brit1234

With increasing unemployment, high inflation and wage freezes the problem will get worse. Especially when you get greedy landlords charging increased rents all the time. There is a breaking point and I am sure we have gone past it.