Rent Increase During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Crashy_Time

lisyloo said:

Crashy_Time said:

deannatrois said:

Is the new rent in line with rentals in your area?  If it still is, and you don't want to move, I think its probably best to forget coronavirus (if your employment is secure, different if not of course).  

Not sure about that, job losses of others will put downward pressure on rents, but this will take a short time to feed through, maybe it`s call their bluff time?

Are you mobile I.e. willing to move elsewhere.
my place isn’t perfect but it’s good enough that I can’t be bothered with the hassle of moving somewhere else which has costs and/or effort associated with deep cleaning, inventory etc.
what do you think will happen medium/long term?
personally I think all the restaurants, cinemas, coffee shops (and hence jobs) will be back to full strength, so we are unlikely to see major shifts in rent.
immigrants will still come back both legal and illegal.
so yes have a look around and if it’s now above market value you could consider whether it’s worth your while moving and you just might get a good deal right now. if you get a special distressed deal do bear in mind that it will likely rise in future.
its really down to your resistance to moving and how close to market value the place is, coupled with local availability of similar.
i have great availability, price is ok and I really don’t want to deep clean, inventory and move.
dont forget about the deposit, new agreeement, deep cleaning, inventory hassle and costs.
you need to return the place as it was so defrost the freezer, remove mildew, clean the tile grout etc.etc.

Very very unlikely IMO, there will be new social distancing measures, distance between tables etc. which will take all the enjoyment/relaxation out of spending time in these places, and total shut-down at the slightest hint of another outbreak (we have not been hit by this outbreak properly yet if many commentators are to be believed) meaning these places are no longer secure for employment or socialising, in fact many of these businesses won`t be re-opening because they are now bankrupt.

The landlord also has all the hassle of deep cleaning AND he has to find another buyer/tenant if the OP leaves, so increasing rent at this point is a risky move IMO, he could find himself in trouble quite easily.

lisyloo

You think we’ll be social distancing forever??
greater distance between tables in London would be extremely welcome
so you think we will no longer have pubs or restaurants in London ever again??

Crashy_Time

lisyloo said:

You think we’ll be social distancing forever??
greater distance between tables in London would be extremely welcome
so you think we will no longer have pubs or restaurants in London ever again??

Put it this way, anyone who knows what pubs and clubs were like in the 80`s and even into the 90`s knows that they way people use them and interact in them has shifted massively, what caused that change will keep PHD`s busy in the future maybe, but are you saying that shifts in how people socialise can`t happen now? Not sure where my post says social distancing forever, or no longer any pubs and restaurants in London ever again? but it is entirely possible that people won`t feel comfortable in enclosed busy environments (London pub/eating place is the perfect example) for some time. Using the underground masked up may be seen as a necessity by many, but will they see going out to pubs/restaurants the same way? Also, it will take just one "scare" now in a restaurant/ pub, maybe even a false rumour on social media, to see trade drop off a cliff and the place maybe having to shut down. The price of alcohol in London should put most sensible people off going out there anyway, even without the virus threat IMO, it`s not as if ordinary punters can really afford it if they are being honest?

lisyloo

You must be joking or you don’t know london very well at all.
pre virus you couldn’t walk on the pavement outside pubs (a bugbear of mine) as the drinkers are spilled out all over the surrounding pavements and that’s on normal weekdays not just Friday and Saturday.
if you think Londoners are bothered  by overcrowding then you’ve can’t have ever been to a London pub or been on the tube,
i don’t think you have a grasp of the London psyche at all (personally I dont get why people enjoy pubs so crowded you can talk/hear but I don’t deny the phenomenon).

i don’t see a shift away from us being city centric unfortunately

Crashy_Time

lisyloo said:

You must be joking or you don’t know london very well at all.
pre virus you couldn’t walk on the pavement outside pubs (a bugbear of mine) as the drinkers are spilled out all over the surrounding pavements and that’s on normal weekdays not just Friday and Saturday.
if you think Londoners are bothered  by overcrowding then you’ve can’t have ever been to a London pub or been on the tube,
i don’t think you have a grasp of the London psyche at all (personally I dont get why people enjoy pubs so crowded you can talk/hear but I don’t deny the phenomenon).

i don’t see a shift away from us being city centric unfortunately

Not sure what your point is? We are talking post-virus, not before the virus.Drinkers in market towns in the Midlands spill on to the pavements when it gets busy sometimes, that isn`t unique to London, but they won`t be doing it now in London, Midlands or anywhere else? Also not sure why you would think anyone could imagine Londoners are bothered by over-crowding, obviously they are not, or should I say were not, and that is the whole point I am making.......are they going to be bothered by it in the future if the virus threat has not completely lifted? Have you ever been in a pub or public transport outside London?

lisyloo

Yes,  I’ve spent half a century outside London.
I’m very well aware of the differences in transport, lifestyle, spending habits etc.

i think there’s lots of evidence that many people are not scared at all. For example pubs being packed until they were actually shut and people still ignoring advice.

we will have to agree to disagree on our views but my suggestion was the OP considered their long term view, availability in their area and their personal resistance to moving 
its up to the OP to take their view on that - they don’t have to share my view or yours but clearly there is (as always) a spectrum of opinion

gettingtheresometime

lisyloo said:

personally I think all the restaurants, cinemas, coffee shops (and hence jobs) will be back to full strength, so we are unlikely to see major shifts in rent.
immigrants will still come back both legal and illegal.

Ignoring the social distancing aspect I think you're being a little naive in saying that.

if, as the experts are saying, this results in a global recession what do you think people are going to cut back first? 

Even if it isn't as bad as a global recession, a lot of people will have had a wake up call & will be planning to build up an emergency fund once this is all over

lisyloo

gettingtheresometime said:

lisyloo said:

personally I think all the restaurants, cinemas, coffee shops (and hence jobs) will be back to full strength, so we are unlikely to see major shifts in rent.
immigrants will still come back both legal and illegal.

Ignoring the social distancing aspect I think you're being a little naive in saying that.

if, as the experts are saying, this results in a global recession what do you think people are going to cut back first? 

Even if it isn't as bad as a global recession, a lot of people will have had a wake up call & will be planning to build up an emergency fund once this is all over

You can have your view too, but what’s your suggestion to the Op?
move somewhere cheaper? The first thing I would do is check both availability and price of comparables.
I’m still not quite clear on what’s allowed wrt moving. I thought it wasn’t recommended unless in limited circs.

Crashy_Time

lisyloo said:

Yes,  I’ve spent half a century outside London.
I’m very well aware of the differences in transport, lifestyle, spending habits etc.

i think there’s lots of evidence that many people are not scared at all. For example pubs being packed until they were actually shut and people still ignoring advice.

we will have to agree to disagree on our views but my suggestion was the OP considered their long term view, availability in their area and their personal resistance to moving 
its up to the OP to take their view on that - they don’t have to share my view or yours but clearly there is (as always) a spectrum of opinion

Not the point I was making, my point is that as time has gone on the rest of the country, big towns and cities anyway, have become more and more just like little sub-sets of London, high stress, high debt, high congestion at peak times,(and high something else that I won`t mention) all the same cafe chains, all the same pub and shop chains etc. It is like someone picked up pieces of a giant Lego model and set them down in various urban areas around the UK, areas that used to have a very distinct character and vibe of their own. London in the early 80`s for example was changing but it was still a unique planet all of it`s own, very different to anywhere else in the UK, that started to change through the late 80`s into the 90`s IMO. there is an interesting interview with someone that I read, I think they toured with the band Orbital or something, and they said that probably early 90`s they started to notice that all the towns they played in were becoming similar, McDonald`s as you came into town, local pubs/cafe`s becoming chain names, local accent/dialect softening and becoming more neutral, they blamed it on the advance of big banks and corporations and we don`t need to rehash that debate here, but fast forward to now and we have London as the main satellite with various orbiting towns and cities all copying the same model. Of course individuals/businesses in London are much more highly leveraged/indebted and IMO will be hit much harder by this crisis.

My other point was that people change and their social habits change, not that pubs used to be busy and are not busy now, it was normal say in the 80`s to be more sociable with strangers in public places than it is now, it then became normal to cut yourself off in public with headphones/smartphone, who is to say in the wake of this that it won`t become normal to avoid busy congested eating/drinking places in favour of home based socialising?

Whether people are scared or not it doesn`t really matter, the authorities are obviously going to enforce lock down and social distancing until they don`t need to anymore, the people that were posting selfies from pubs a couple of weeks ago are no longer able to be in pubs, whether they are scared of this situation or not is irrelevant.