Any long term renters in? Do you worry about your future?

Mrs_pbradley936

[Deleted User] said:

What it boils down to is houses are seen as an investment, not somewhere to live. They also last far too long, and don't get significant renovation work done so become unsuitable. A combination of ridiculous prices driven by investors and poor housing stock has created a toxic enviroment.

You are right but that is not the fault of the investor. It began with the opening up of the finance "market" which allowed people to re-mortgage or get a Buy-to-let mortgage. It continued with the introduction of Shorthold tenancies. Prior to those two things property was for living in - the only time you played around with your mortgage was if you moved and you could not get any equity out of your house by re-mortgaging. That was before banks gave out mortgages. At one time a Building Society was the only place you could get a mortgage and you had to have been saving with them for years. If property becomes a poor investment the money will flow away from it. At the moment with very bad interest rates it seems the best place to put any spare money.

Getting_greyer

Gavin83 said:

michael1234 said:

Here is a different perspective. I retired early and am moving abroad. Ideally, I'd like to rent my house out for a few years. I started looking into it and then I realised I'd be entirely at the mercy of a potential tenant as to how well the let proceeded. In particular, I just can't get my head around the fact about what do I do if the tenant loses their job and can't pay the rent?

I'd only have one property and that would be providing me an income. If the tenant either through no fault of their own or for some other reason stops paying the rent and won't move out there's nothing I can do. Well I think there are things but they take more than a year and a lot of time, work and more expense (court fees etc). I'd also worry about what if they were just "wrong-uns" and decided to trash the place? That'd be most of my life savings up in smoke.

Yes I know tenants are vetted and credit-checked etc but these things still do happen and I can't afford to take even a 2% risk of it happening to me. Maybe if I was a big landlord with a dozen or more properties then you could balance the risk. But the rules at present don't really allow an individual with one property to let it out safely.

So I plan to sell my house and buy flats in the place I'm moving to as over there a landlord can repossess his property more quickly if the tenant can't pay.

I'm obviously not looking for any sympathy whatsoever but just explaining one person's perspective as to why he won't at his property on the rental market. 

I do think we’re only a couple of years away from a real serious rental crisis. We’ll end up in a situation where demand massively outstrips supply as more and more landlords leave the market. This will inevitably drive rent prices up and leave a lot of people unable to afford housing. I can only see a few potential choices to fix this:

1) Stick laws in place for rent ceilings or increase tenants rights further. This will however just drive even more landlords to back out and leave even less rental options on the market.

2) Reduce tenants rights or at least make it easier to evict non paying tenants. The tenancy groups will lose their minds over this though and I expect the press will tear the Tories apart for suggesting it, therefore it won’t happen.

3) Build more social housing. With what though given the country has no money.

Ultimately there isn’t an easy solution to this.

This is the problem with Government policies. On the surface some seem OK but the reality can cause serious issues. 

I guess they could set rent ceilings alongside an incentive for LL's to sell to local authorities at first refusal.  5 years later realise it costs a lot to maintain. Launch a new RTB scheme on acid.  

coffeehound

It seems there are a lot of retail properties lying empty now with no prospect of being reused in the same way — ex Debenhams shops for example. Maybe they could be converted into flats?

MovingForwards

annabanana82 said:

Not a renter but I'm amazed by how many of my renting friends haven't even considered how or where they are going to live post retirement, mostly aged late 30's to 50, and all bar one they don't even have much of a pension in place either. 
Lots of people I know are dependent on either an inheritance or benefits in their old age

Same as my eldest sibling. Turning 52, never left the family home, less than £1k savings and a pension that wouldn't cover a months council tax. Has spent the last couple of years talking of owning their own home, but has unrealistic expectations and won't scale back / compromise on what they will live in. 

Potential inheritance would give 10% deposit, but don't know where the rest would come from as income doesn't come anywhere near the multiple required.

Almost feels like they're sabotaging their own future.

[Deleted User]

michael1234 said:

Here is a different perspective. I retired early and am moving abroad. Ideally, I'd like to rent my house out for a few years. I started looking into it and then I realised I'd be entirely at the mercy of a potential tenant as to how well the let proceeded. In particular, I just can't get my head around the fact about what do I do if the tenant loses their job and can't pay the rent?

I'd only have one property and that would be providing me an income. If the tenant either through no fault of their own or for some other reason stops paying the rent and won't move out there's nothing I can do. Well I think there are things but they take more than a year and a lot of time, work and more expense (court fees etc). I'd also worry about what if they were just "wrong-uns" and decided to trash the place? That'd be most of my life savings up in smoke.

Yes I know tenants are vetted and credit-checked etc but these things still do happen and I can't afford to take even a 2% risk of it happening to me. Maybe if I was a big landlord with a dozen or more properties then you could balance the risk. But the rules at present don't really allow an individual with one property to let it out safely.

So I plan to sell my house and buy flats in the place I'm moving to as over there a landlord can repossess his property more quickly if the tenant can't pay.

I'm obviously not looking for any sympathy whatsoever but just explaining one person's perspective as to why he won't at his property on the rental market. 

You want to retire early by owning a very limited resource and charging someone else to use it, more than they would pay if they owned it themselves. You are leveraging your capital wealth.

Given that it's entirely reasonable that tenants have rights that come before your own. As you have realised owning someone else's home isn't just easy income, it's a responsibility.

JJC1956

coffeehound said:

It seems there are a lot of retail properties lying empty now with no prospect of being reused in the same way — ex Debenhams shops for example. Maybe they could be converted into flats?

A lot of the iconic stores are being snapped up by entrepreneurs and turned into multi use venues but you’re right there must be a lot of shopping centres dying on their feet because of online shopping, local councils need to run their eyes over these places and either convert them or knock them down and hopefully replace them with social housing.

michael1234

[Deleted User] said:

michael1234 said:

Here is a different perspective. I retired early and am moving abroad. Ideally, I'd like to rent my house out for a few years. I started looking into it and then I realised I'd be entirely at the mercy of a potential tenant as to how well the let proceeded. In particular, I just can't get my head around the fact about what do I do if the tenant loses their job and can't pay the rent?

I'd only have one property and that would be providing me an income. If the tenant either through no fault of their own or for some other reason stops paying the rent and won't move out there's nothing I can do. Well I think there are things but they take more than a year and a lot of time, work and more expense (court fees etc). I'd also worry about what if they were just "wrong-uns" and decided to trash the place? That'd be most of my life savings up in smoke.

Yes I know tenants are vetted and credit-checked etc but these things still do happen and I can't afford to take even a 2% risk of it happening to me. Maybe if I was a big landlord with a dozen or more properties then you could balance the risk. But the rules at present don't really allow an individual with one property to let it out safely.

So I plan to sell my house and buy flats in the place I'm moving to as over there a landlord can repossess his property more quickly if the tenant can't pay.

I'm obviously not looking for any sympathy whatsoever but just explaining one person's perspective as to why he won't at his property on the rental market. 

You want to retire early by owning a very limited resource and charging someone else to use it, more than they would pay if they owned it themselves. You are leveraging your capital wealth.

Given that it's entirely reasonable that tenants have rights that come before your own. As you have realised owning someone else's home isn't just easy income, it's a responsibility.

I guess you don't like landlords much then?

Owleyes00

I have recently stopped renting. What always irked me about the whole system is how much over the landlord’s mortgage payments you were inevitably paying. I have gone from paying £775/month to live in a one bedroom flat to £520/month to live in a 3 bedroom house with a garage and garden. The flat I was renting has just been relet at £825/month.

A friend and ex colleague of mine is approaching retirement age and is renting a 2 bedroom flat at £1000/month. ONE THOUSAND POUNDS. She is highly anxious about where she will end up in the next few years. 

Successive governments have had very little interest in building more social housing, instead focussing on “affordable homes” which are anything but. 

The only solution I have found is to build a time machine and not elect Margaret Thatcher. I reckon it would cost less than building all the social housing that needs to be built as well.

Owleyes00

JJC1956 said:

coffeehound said:

It seems there are a lot of retail properties lying empty now with no prospect of being reused in the same way — ex Debenhams shops for example. Maybe they could be converted into flats?

A lot of the iconic stores are being snapped up by entrepreneurs and turned into multi use venues but you’re right there must be a lot of shopping centres dying on their feet because of online shopping, local councils need to run their eyes over these places and either convert them or knock them down and hopefully replace them with social housing.

Agree in principle but permitted development has led to some awful excuses for social housing being built near where I used to work. Search Templefields Harlow, myriad articles have been written about it.

Atomix

We live in a small town in the cotswolds, there are no houses to rent, and also none in any neighbouring towns, when a house comes up, its gone in a day.... might point is, even if you wanted to rent where I live, you couldnt...