Rents in UK now most expensive in Europe

Graham_Devon

Few key facts from the document.

The average british renter spends 39.1% of their income on rent. For the EU, the figure is 28%.

The average rent in the UK is now £750 per month. In the EU the average rent is £400 per month. (just think what people could do and how the economy would benefit with that extra money).

1.37m households are on the social housing waiting list.

118,700 homes were completed in England in 2014. Well below target, even with schemes designed (apparently) to promote the building of homes.

David Orr, chief executive of the NHF, said: "How can we expect people to raise families, start businesses or save for their first home if they don't even know where they will be able to afford to live?

"High rents are just one symptom of the housing crisis, we are simply not building enough due to under investment and problems with the land market."

There was also a culture of longer-term residency in properties on the continent, unlike in the UK where people moved more often owing to short tenancy agreements, the federation added.

So we pay the highest amount in Europe for rent, but get the lowest amount of security.

However, the news is cheerful for existing owners and, presumably BTL's with fierce competition in the mortgage market. (My take: the competition aimed at select groups)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33253659

stator

Time for rent controls and building houses. Shame the rich Tories won't do either.

mwpt

stator wrote: »

Time for rent controls and building houses. Shame the rich Tories won't do either.

Rent controls in the form you mean are almost certainly not the answer. Many cities around the world have rent controls and they have not solved the problem they were meant to.

We are moving toward fewer owner occupiers. We (and I mean our government) have to wake up and act on this. Take a lesson from Germany. I define professional landlords as those who receive tax breaks on interest, maintenance, etc. An amateur landlord can be exempt from the regulations but will not receive the tax breaks

- Make longer term tenancies law for professional landlords.
- Ensure lenders comply with this.
- Regulate rental increases during tenancies.
- Professional landlords cannot kick tenants out on a whim. They are in it for a business and the properties they own are not theirs, but belong to their business.
- Make it easier to evict troublesome / non paying tenants.
- Or, from the above, put a scheme in place that professional landlord rents are regulated through some controlling body which insures against rent payment. This is a kind of social security for tenants who fall on hard times, landlord still receives rent, tenant gets a short grace period if they lose their job for eg. But, it falls on the state to investigate the matter immediately and remove a tenant who just decides not to pay.
- Start incentivising building somehow. Perhaps charges on land banking. Any citizen can identify land that has been banked and issue a request to build. The problem with having most of our building done by big builders is it isn't letting the market function.

I would add that mortgage rates should be raised slowly, but unfortunately I am realistic enough to know a government will not do that now because it will cause economic downturn. Trapped.

mayonnaise

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The average rent in the UK is now £750 per month. In the EU the average rent is £400 per month. (just think what people could do and how the economy would benefit with that extra money).

The average rent for a 2 bed city flat in Romania is 400 euro (£280) per month. (just think how the Romanian economy benefits with that extra money).
Devonomics in action.

purch

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The average Brit spends 39.1% of their income on rent.

Well I don't pay any of my income in Rent and nor do millions of other Brits, so some Brits must be paying out closer to 100% :eek:

alleycat`

purch wrote: »

Well I don't pay any of my income in Rent and nor do millions of other Brits, so some Brits must be paying out closer to 100% :eek:

I was going to suggest that point needed clarifying somewhat (and how badly skewed is that number by London / SE?)

Is this just renters? Or all of the population of the UK?

Graham_Devon

Point has been clarified for those of a confused nature who I highly doubt are actually confused

Got to the point on here where it's not the topic that's discussed any longer. It's a spelling mistake or a sentence which allows for a silly forum point scoring issue to be made.

HappyMJ

You can't rent a property unless you earn more than 30 times the monthly rent as annual income which is 40% of your gross pay going on rent so how do they get the average being just barely under 40%. It's more like 30%.

Ronaldo_Mconaldo

So why don't these people just move to Europe if it's so wonderful over there?

purch

Ronaldo_Mconaldo wrote: »

So why don't these people just move to Europe if it's so wonderful over there?

You've got to pay your own rent over there.

remorseless

stator wrote: »

Time for rent controls and building houses. Shame the rich Tories won't do either.

aren't the rent going up as much as people are continuing to pay?
I agree that rents are high, but obviously properties are getting let?

This https://www.gov.uk/housing-benefit/what-youll-get does not help...