What are letting agents like these days?

Slithery

savefortherain said:

How can anyone be working 40 hours a week on minimum wage, and expect to live in a house share?

It suits me just fine. I pay £100 per week all bills included and am saving the rest of my wages for a self-build.
If you live by yourself with no dependants then why do you need more than a single room and shared amenities? Anything more is just an unneeded luxury.

TripleH

Where I lived in the centre of Manchester, a number of flats in our building were let on a flatshare basis.

The occupants were young people in their 20's who didn't mind sharing.

I have lived in shared houses before in my 30's.

Yes, living on your own it can be hard to afford rent and other costs without compromising somewhere along the line.

MaryNB

savefortherain said:

May I ask what you spent the rest of your money on if you were limiting your rent to just a third and virtually having no social life haha (rhetorical question, not expecting an answer).

The numbers just don't make sense. Minimum wage salary is £17500 so the most people can afford is around 500 a month (apparently). How can anyone be working 40 hours a week on minimum wage, and expect to live in a house share? That is not a decent standard of living in the 21st century. Of course they could save the extra but that is never counted toward future rent, only earnings are.

It seems like the whole system is in need of big reform. And I don't want to hear any nonsense about the average wage being £26k in Manchester. Like everyone in Manchester is a Junior Doctor wandering around streets just begging people to let them give them a health check up because there are no surgeries they can work in due to the overabundance of Junior Doctors.

Saving for a deposit. I'm also more of a gig/brunch/holiday person than a boozy night out. I could have stretched myself and afforded much nicer places but I'd be renting into my 40s if I decided to spend my money renting a room in a 2 bed flat. I hated house shares but it was the only way I could realistically save for a deposit. Bristol is far more expensive than the rents you've quoted above for Manchester (ETA: The cheapest available one bed property I could find on Rightmove in the entire Bristol area is a studio for £650pcm). 

I work full time as an engineer. I lived in a house share until I was 31. Before I bought a property last year was the 2nd youngest in my 4-bed flat share (with an engineer, an engineering technician, and an accountant). I've had plenty of housemates in 4+ house shares who were in their 30s earning well above minimum wage. The only time I rented with just one other person was when I moved up north for a bit. All the grad engineers who started in my office recently are in house shares. It was the same when I was a grad, all my friends and similar aged colleagues were living in house shares. Most of them were still in house shares until they were in their late 20s/early 30s and moved in with a partner or bought somewhere with the help of the bank of mam and dad. 

While I hated sharing with people it was far from a bad standard of living. I'm not saying it's fair. It's just not financially sensible to spent 2/3 of your salary on rent. Like I said in my first post, I had housemates who moved from studio flats to house shares because living alone put them into debt.

savefortherain

Can you call it a good standard of living if you hate it?

That worked for you because you were building towards getting on the ladder, but for low income people this is a much harder thing to do. Not everyone wants to get on the ladder and get that wealth/security that comes with home ownership, but they still want a good standard of living for the 40 hours they put in each and every week.

Not even talked about overtime/second jobs/side hustles. People can afford more than 1/3 of rent but it would be a shame if letting agents refuse those applicants because they aren't Junior Doctors and Engineers. The world cannot be made up of people on £26k.

I'm just not sure low income people can be locked out of the rental market as well as the buying market, it's something that can't continue. No one's asking for hand outs or even luxury here.

theartfullodger

Since in England to be a lettings agent requires a no training, no qualifications, no criminal records check you could be dealt with an office fill of ex-prisoners on early release from sentences for GBH and fraud.

So maybe don't expect too much .

Other county do things better.  Sigh!

MaryNB

savefortherain said:

Can you call it a good standard of living if you hate it?

Because it was a personal preference. I didn't live in a dump. I don't like living with other people but I had a roof over my head, a decent sized room, heating, hot water and I lived in a nice quiet area within walking distance of my workplace. The landlord did repairs when required, I never felt unsafe in the property. Nothing new or fancy in the property but it functioned fine. I had a decent disposable income and savings which was more of a priority for me than living in a flat by myself. My life would have been worse off if I lived in a cheaper one bed flat out in the sticks which required hours of commuting by bus every day. I had a good standard of living, I didn't mind most of my housemates, I just didn't like being the only person in the house who took out the bins or mopped the floor. Plenty of adults live in house shares and survive just fine. 

Are you proposing rent caps and/or a ban on income checks? The market determines rent levels and demand is very high in many areas. The general requirement of monthly rent=30x salary is in line with most financial advisory services' guidelines for rent as a % of income.  Given the difficulty in evicting non-paying tenants I can't see landlord being charitable towards individuals or making exceptions when there are a dozen other tenants who meet the criteria and will happily take the room. Saying that, not all landlords check income, you just have to work a bit harder to find a more relaxed landlord. 

macman

It's the LL that determines the rent, not the LA. The LA can only advise.

TripleH

Another issue is the supply of 'appropriate rental accommodation'

I saw a lot of flats going up in the centre of Manchester but these were all 'luxury appartments for professionals'.

Supply could be readdressed but there is no money in helping those at the bottom of the ladder and planning committees are reluctant to upset developers 'sanitising' their towns into a 'better place'

MaryNB

TripleH said:

Another issue is the supply of 'appropriate rental accommodation'

I saw a lot of flats going up in the centre of Manchester but these were all 'luxury appartments for professionals'.

Supply could be readdressed but there is no money in helping those at the bottom of the ladder and planning committees are reluctant to upset developers 'sanitising' their towns into a 'better place'

Same in Bristol. Drives me mad. They sit on the market for ages, despite there being a huge demand for properties on Bristol. They haven't stopped building them though.