I moved into my top floor flat 2.5 years ago. It's an ex-council block that's a mixture of owners and renters. The roof was so bad that when the builders came, they put their feet through into my neighbour's kitchen and bathroom. It was so sodden and rotten that my energy bill was £280/month year round for a 1 bed flat with locked-in 2021 rates. Finally, the roof was fixed. My neighbour below had to become a director to get it pushed through. It turns out that 3 landlords, who were also directors, had vetoed every attempt to fix the roof for the last 10 years because they could still take rent regardless. A disgusting class of cretinous little scrooges. I am incredibly lucky to be moving into my own home next week.

Meanwhile KZfaq is full of videos about how to turn a 3 bed house into a 6 bed hmo

You could make it less profitable and could compel smalltime landlords to sell, but huge finance firms like BlackRock are circling like sharks. They'll snap up homes before you or I could get a look-in.

Here in Berlin, I was asked to pay to view a property, but I assumed the advert was just a scam. I did consider writing back to say "Sure, I'll pay the fee just as soon as that Nigerian cheque clears" but I wasn't 100% sure it wasn't a new thing these scoundrels were trying, so I just politely declined. Shocking to find out that this is starting to happen in more sought-after places.

The energy efficiency question is one of the biggest reasons why having a generation of renters without any regulation is a problem. I've never seen a rental property, certainly at the bottom end of the market, where they don't buy the cheapest, least energy efficient appliances. If you're not paying the bills, then why wouldn't you buy the worst E-rated washing machine you can find? Why would you upgrade to a new boiler when there's nothing in it for you?

Landlords provide housing in the same way ticket touts provide entertainment.

The problem, for a long time now, has been that the regulations benefit bad landlords and bad tenants the most. The few genuinely just landlords get screwed over by tenants who know their "rights" and make everything as difficult and drawn out as possible and refuse to pay any rent. The rules certainly don't help good tenants who are, as mentioned, genuinely scared to raise any issue because they know the landlord will "retaliate" with a rent hike or eviction.

most mps are landlords too so nothing will change

Shall we start with the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. I don’t see any of them in jail for their liability for Grenfell?

Who wants a hedge fund landlord?

Except that corporations not councils are now buying up family homes and renting; less homes on market to buy for first home buyers

I think we need to rebrand social drag. We have to start saying there is no money for the economy when all our wealth is being sent to landlords to corner more of the housing market

If more employers supported remote working, then there would be significantly less pressure on the lettings and sales housing market in major cities. Not only would a broader distribution of the population be positive for regional villages, towns and cites who have suffered due to mass migration to mega cites like London, but tenants and buyers would have more disposable income, whilst making an investment in residential property for a landlord, less viable.

The issue is bigger than housing its the debt based money system which has caused the housing issue as well every other economic issue. It would however help if governments build social housing on a large scale and then rent them out highly subsidised pushing down rental prices and simultaneously providing an income for councils combined with much better regulation for rental rights and leasehold reforms and so on. But beyond that the cause needs to be addressed, the debt based money system, which is hollowing out all of society both private and public to the benefit of the few.

I recently sold a property that I rented out as a landlord. Rental income made me no money whatsoever. The rental income was all taxed at 40% which is the tax bracket I fall into. Yes my mortgage was paid by the rental income but the rest of the rent money went into a savings pot ready for a taxi bill come January. What's more the rental money was not enough to cover the tax bill and I had to pay more money into the savings account to have enough to pay for the tax bill. Month to month it actually cost me money to be a landlord and I made nothing in terms of profit. Capital gains.....hardly made anything on this due to capital gains tax and again made basically nothing considering how long I had the property. Yes I made some profit when I sold the property but not a lot. I don't agree landlords should be ashamed. Quite the opposite. Good private landlords should be proud of the hard work they do to help people who otherwise would not be able to afford somewhere of Thier own to live.

I am a landlord (of just one appartment) and acknowledge the system is broken and would love it if everyone was taxed so heavily that having an investment property is uneconomic. However until this happens I am going to hang on to it for my child to use later in life because otherwise I can see it’ll be impossible for them. Maybe I should read animal farm again.

If the landlords all disappeared would that mean people would have to buy a property in any place that they wanted to live, even if for a short term, studying, placement or lifestyle change?

What do you think about large housing developers building ‘Build to Rent?’ Do you think these corporates will replace the small landlords? How will this be any better? Also, isn’t it the actual land that’s expensive? Not just a house. We are somewhat different from other European countries because we are a tiny island which is over populated…. Hence land is going to be much more expensive I also think the rental market is highly regulated, in favour of tenants. I have read through the new Renters Reform bill and abolishing Section 21 just means that a landlord will have to give a reason why they want to evict… whereas before, they didn’t have to give a reason… even though there is always a reason.

Landlords, landlords, landlords. Private landlords are a drop in the bucket compared to the holdings of private equity companies, property trusts etc.

It's ridiculous to think that higher availability of housing stock makes houses more affordable. It doesn't. Land prices and hand me outs are what is the root cause of crazy house prices. Solve the, here's 10 acres of arable farming land worth say £125,000, say it's going to be allowed to have house builders develop the land and all of a sudden, the same bit of muddy earth rockets up to say £2,500,000. Then you have the council wanting their contributions to be met for local infrastructure, which it turns out quite often that nothing from that money is used to develop the infrastructure and you have an answer to the house prices problem. It is the cost of building new homes that indirectly impacts the perceived cost of existing homes, based on how much it would cost to build the same house today. As for landlords, that depends on the landlord. People that own one or two other properties are selling up, they've had enough. The councils have sold off a lot of their housing stock so the issue is available homes for rent. It's a shrinking market and not good for tenants.

Finally someone’s taking sense. Been saying for years we don’t need more houses all over green belt. We need to end the rich hoarding property and driving up house prices.

The main problem is the power dynamic. Landlords always have the power in all circumstances. Even if you put some laws in place, you have someone that can take away your home, refuse to do basic work on it or price you out of your home. Even with protections in place it is you that has to go through the pain of getting a landlord to do what they are required to. And with your home comes your community, your children's school and friends, and your support network. No-one should be allowed to have that power over you.

We are all renters, we rent are utilities, so do land lords, we rent our food, so do landlords, we rent our cars, we rent everything, the malls are owned, the energy companies are owned, farms are owned, everything is owned and we pay rent for it including land lords their mortgages are owned by much wealthier people, were all renters landlords are no exception, just a chain in the link.

Just an hour ago I received a response for a maintenance request, “The landlord will not undertake the repair” Nothing I can do, can’t complain due to the risk of revenge eviction and nowhere else for me to move out to.

I think they'll happily take a bit of shame if they get to drive around in a big 4x4 and send their kids to a private school.

What is your opinion about leaseholds and service charges, Nick? Sad you didn't talk about it.

The biggest landlords are the banks to whom most of us pay mortgages too. If there were no landlords the corporations would take over which is whats happening. At that point the market forces are controlled by a few big companies, be careful what you wish for. These big rental block are charging more than the average landlord and service charges in the thousands. Don't be distracted by the noise focus on the real issues of tax burdens, low wages, over priced items we all buy, affordable housing that isn't affordable, selling to wealthy offshore companies run by wealth individuals

Some differentiation is needed - there are landlords working on a large scale with high profits and little regard for tenants, and there are small scale landlords including live in landlords. Very different situations. Its the large scale landlords that really need regulating, just like the super rich need taxing.

Does this man have a KZfaq channel? If not, he should. Brilliantly well spoken.

Bidding wars definitely happen. I was put into one and it became confusing because the 2 bed property was listed at 1250 a month and I think eventually it went for like £1450 a month, which was way overpriced. Simply because I live in a town outside of London and people are leaving London

Theres a difference between those on benefits and private renting. Also, inflation and QE are what dictate prices not landlords.

Very insightful look at topics which are not always touched upon in this kind of discussion. Good work !

My landlord made 21 people homeless last november so that he could gentrify the site and charge more in rent.

Television is full of shows dedicated to promoting landlords.

Who should provide rental property? I don’t want to be tied to a mortgage but I’m fairly well off so wouldn’t need, want, or be entitled to local authority provided housing.

All the people in this comment section proposing total overhauls of the current system have clearly never read, much less understood, any economics textbook.

The problem is mainly to do with the banksters printing money like no tomorrow so devaluing the currency massively, and also the lack of builds over the last couple of decades

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Why is everyone hating on private landlords? There are a lot of decent landlords who have lost fortunes due to the strict laws placed against them by the government. Tenants move in and some pay a few months and then stop paying for months and you have to go to court to get them out. The tenants trash your property and the government protect them. The laws need to change. Social housing means more government funding and it’s us the taxpayers that the government will push to pay that. Rn tenants trash homes and still demand full deposit or you me deposit remains stuck with DPS. No one should be told how they run their investment. They worked hard to get it.

I can only thank my tenants for helping me pay off my mortgages. I just about cover my costs as a landlord but most importantly, the rent covers the mortgages which means after 14 years I am now mortgage free on nine properties and ready to sell up a portfolio that in 2005 was worth about £450K and is now worth just short of £1.5M. I have had a lot of good tenants in those 14 years and I love you all.

I have been a landlord for 20+ years. I have never evicted a tenant. I;m not embarrassed or ashamed to be a landlord. I dont need to be respected. Nick seems to think all landlords are bad landlords and should be mocked. I am really fed up with this perspective of landlords, being greedy. I dont make demands of tenants. I dont charge for viewings. I provide a home for a market value and the tenants have a choice. And my experience of other landlords is that they do the same. The root cause of the housing market is not landlords. Its supply and demand. There is not enough affordable housing in the UK - housing benefits is a symptom, not the cause.

But how will the Boomers do all us youngsters a favour by providing us with housing at an over inflated rate? We should be grateful!!

I dont know how much is landlords, however I think public, low rent housing makes up too little of the housing market. Since the 80s, no government has increased council housing and government owned housing, leading to the ridiculous surge in prices and lack of supply. Demand equally needs to be addressed.

Quality and concise, thanks very much

For a significant percentage of ex-council houses that are now rented out privately, there was a person or family that benefitted greatly from the principles behind social housing, and were prepared to then ignore those principles for their own personal benefit. This comment section is no different. For every 10 people commenting how bad landlords are, there is at least one of those commenters who would do exactly the same of they had the chance, they simply dont have the chance.

I've been a landlord for over 20 years, and I promise you it's 100% about demand vs. supply. Demand has gone up because more people are moving to cities and supply has not kept up because of over-regulation by government. This man has no idea what he's talking about.

I agree on the following points; 1) The housing market is not driven by supply and demand, it's driven by profit! 2) A cap isn't necessarily a bad thing, (however some landlords may be forced to sell if their costs rise). I strongly disagree that landlords should be abolished. That's complete ******* A sane solution would benefit both good lanlords and good tenants.

There is no shame being a landlord, it like any other business as you are in business to make money. The cost of rent is linked to demand. Maybe you should ask the government why they stagnated building affordable housing, poor management of the economy. In London there are now more flats, apartments being built and cost stupid amounts of money and unfortunately London is also the place where most of the jobs are.

Same question from me and disclaimer, I am not a landlord renting out a property. Suppose all landlords are abolished. Great, now the properties they rent out are emptied and on the market to be bought, etc. Where are the renters going to live? Most renters can't afford to buy the house they're renting. Who is buying these houses for these people to live in? Property developers aren't going to hand the houses over for free. So when a property is built, landlords can't buy it to rent out so people have a place to stay, renters can't afford to buy the house to stay in, what is the solution? "Oh, the properties are overpriced, developers shouldn't be allowed to charge that much, then everyone can afford a place." OK, so you're asking property developers to not make a profit? Then why be in the business? If they are to take all the risk to not make money, they might as well just not do anything and shut down. "Cut the cost down, property developers make a profit and now the houses are affordable." Material cost is not going down, the only thing to cut is salary. So wages aren't high enough, but let's cut the salary of bricklayers? Brilliant idea. What matters is everyone can afford a house, but bricklayers? They can starve. I'm all ears for a solution, but no one has yet to bring one up. "I want it to be like this, I want it to be like that, but I don't know how to get it to be like this and that." If we can get things we want without knowing how to get them, then I want to be Superman.

Well I’m a small time landlord. I have no mortgage/ debt, but I can tell you that after paying for maintenance costs there is very little profit left. I charge market rents when a property becomes free, but most if my tenants have been with me for many years and I’ve left their rent cheap, as I think do many landlords. One has been with me for 25years and her rent has gone up from £90pw to £100pw. Rent has gone down for landlords in the provinces in real terms!

So give govetnment more control? Yeah, that never goes badly does it

Nice top mate, where did you get it from?

One of the worse things of late is the rising air b&bs. There us a house opposite me that used to be rented to locals for around £850 per month. Now its an air b&b for £850 a week. People getting priced out of the area.

Hiya. I’m a private landlord. I own one property, perhaps 100 years old, a tenement in an urban area on a street in which most of the houses are owned by landlords, which I have rented to a single family since I moved out of it into another property six years ago. I have kept their rent low - at least £100 a month lower than similar properties on the same street. I have not put the rent up once in that six years, until the start of this year, when I increased it by 8%. Overall I have spent slightly less on improving the property (new doors, improved heating, electric/gas work, safety improvements, decorating, new shower) than I have made on it since renting it out - by perhaps £1000. Again, this is over six years. I haven’t endlessly put up the rent because it’s not fair on the tenants, and I’ve had to put it up this year because of the rate of inflation and interest rates (thanks Liz Truss). I have also considered selling the property, but I know that if I do a professional landlord will purchase the property and put the rent up by hundreds of pounds, costing the family and perhaps even evicting them. So for now I’m sticking put, continuing to improve the property when it’s needed and keeping the rent low. I’m not entirely comfortable with being a landlord, but looking at the state of other neighbouring properties I’m glad that I’ve improved the home for my tenants, I turn up when there’s an issue with the property, and that I’ve not sold it on. I’m kind of hoping that the tenants, who I know have been saving money, will be able to save enough and offer me a price for it - I’d certainly consider selling it to them for less than the market value.

He said so many things that are incorrect that I couldn't think where to start, so I won't - but will just say that for a 'lawyer' he doesn't appear to know the law very well!

Houses are used as a savings account because currency in the bank is debased substantially every year. If I had £10,000 saved for my retirement 20 years ago, the amount of goods and services i could buy with it now, compared to 20 years ago is greatly reduced (I have then actually lost purchasing power because I saved). Saving money and building for your future is what you do when you can (young and able) so that when you can't, you have the means to survive and hopefully thrive. There are very few options available for people who want to work and save (delay gratification for a better future, which is quite a noble concept if you actually think about it) for their family over a long period of time and housing is (rightly or wrongly) one of those options. Some landlords are bad, some tenants are bad, some politicians are bad, some people are bad.....

24 million dwellings in the UK with 70million people so almost 3 people per dwelling. Problem is lots of those dwellings are not built for 3 people those dwellings are also not all in areas with higher population which is why it is not uncommon now to have HMOs with 10+ people living there. The aim is to have roughly 2.4 people for every dwelling which would put us about 5million homes short at a conservative estimate depending where the homes were built and where people decide to move to. To build enough homes to keep up with current migration building 300k homes per year it would take 50 years to catch up. Last year we built 190k.

We rented our house out for 12 months to live in Spain and work. We then sold our house and bought in Spain. We were landlords temporarily. I think there’s scenarios like ours where being a landlord is not so bad. Our tenants wanted our place for a year to explore the area we used to live in. As a transaction it worked. Long term rents and HMOs are another story…

Everyone! Read the book "Against Landlords" It literally just came out this year. It's very informative about the housing crisis and how to solve it. Landlording has to stop completely or the cost of housing, rent, and property taxes will keep going up infinitely. We already have entire generations of homeless people. Make no mistake, Landlording IS LAND HOARDING. Landlording IS why house prices always go up and never come down. Landlords need to quit being parasites and get a real job. They are not providing housing, they are playing "Ticket Scalping" but with houses. Housing should be a right!

Good questions, great responses. Loved this

It feels like a lot of these discussions around landlords are very London (or i guess major city) related. I live in a poor northern city where you can still buy a 2 bed house for under £35k. So a lot of people can afford to buy, but some for various reasons don't want to (i have rented in the past) and obviously you do still get plenty of people who cant- no job/poor credit rating ect (think more council stock seems like the answer to a lot of these problems) I mean obviously it can still be a problem, but it feels like a very different situation in many parts of the country.

We do not have enough houses. We wouldn’t have enough houses if we abolished landlords. This interview shows how government policy ends up with the wrong people fighting each other - landlords and tenants should be working together to produce a better system. The government has failed us consistently by not building enough homes either to live in or rent.

Just to add a balancer I have a friend who is a landlord and rents 95% to people on housing benefits.. the problem he has with a lot of tenants is the council pay the tenant, the tenants don’t pay the landlord then the council help the tenant to stay in the house RENT FREE not sure where you could live mortgage free.. end result my friend had to sell.. I’m not sure landlords are the problem wholy I agree some are.. it’s funny and this gentleman also makes the point I keep hearing housing crisis yet I go on right move or look in estate agent windows and I never see no homes for sale or rent..hmm then the new builds that I see are priced even higher than the houses they are built around 🤔

People really do not understand the economics of landlords and seem to think they are making a fortune from rents. Here is an approximate breakdown of where the rents from my tenants go. About 30-50% is for the mortgage interest (not paying it off, just paying the interest), about 30% is tax, about 10% covers repairs and void periods. This leaves 30-10% as income to cover the time I put into running the business. My typical rent for a 2 bed house is £800, so that is £240-£80 per month. Usually less than a day's labour for a plumber. If I were to pay for a management company, they charge 10% or the rent, so now the profit is £160-£0. You should rightly ask what you gain for that money. You avoid having to find a large deposit, paying stamp duty, paying legal fees, paying mortgage setup costs, paying for surveys and risking buying a bad house. It costs me about £50k to buy a property, but my tenants only need an £800 deposit. If you bought the house yourself it would be a capital repayment mortgage, so the payments would be higher, you would still have the same maintenance costs I have. When your boiler breaks you may not have the experience to know what to do and may struggle to find an engineer. If you want to move house it will cost you at least £10k in fees and selling costs. You should also ask what you lose when you rent. You lose the growth in value of your house. Houses in the uk have tended to rise in price a little faster than inflation. But once you buy a house, you have locked that cost in forever - as salaries go up, your mortgage will stay about the same, making it feel cheaper. By the time you retire you should have paid it off, removing a cost when you're a pensioner. This is actually where landlords make money - very slowly as prices slowly rise with inflation. But that money is hard to access. You should look at all these factors when you choose to rent or buy. But it's not a landlord being evil by renting a house and making millions. I would need to own 20-30 houses to make the same money as an experienced tradesperson and that would be a full time job to run, so that seems entirely fair. I am not rich. I provide a service that people want and need, often taking houses that are in such bad shape that first time buyers won't or can't take on. I turn them into lovely places for people to live and I am proud of that.

As a landlord I always go below the market rent for tenants I trust and value. I also have only rented out properties I have lived in myself so all appliances are as efficient as I could afford at the time. Don’t tarnish all landlords with the same twisted view - like life - not everyone is the same!

Professional Sound Engineer here. Difficult to diagnose over the video but it sounds like perhaps your pre-amps aren’t strong enough to provide sufficient clean gain to the SM7B which has high resistance leading to a super low output voltage. This is my best guess for the cause of the electrical noise/buzzing

Nick: I want to talk about a profession that we all agree to hate. Evil Landlords. Some think they are good, but they are all bad! Me: And what do you do for a living? Nick: I'm a lawyer... But I'm a good one!!!!

I know a number of landlords who are very generous and good landlords. There are some bad eggs, but what needs to be considered is the crap tenants. I see all too many homes where landlords are repairing the place only to have people destroy them and not take care of them.

YES!!! When I hear bloody politicians saying that laws protecting tenants discourage investors I say GREAT! The whole bloody debacle of amateurs moving into the business of providing people with their HOME makes me furious. And the fact that we’re encouraged to believe that it’s just an investment, a pension plan is also infuriating. Would we say the same about any other necessity? I have to stop or this comment could go on til Dick docks (that’s a very long time away if anyone doesn’t know)

Its a sellers market. Demand destruction is happening and i am quite happy in my caravan in a field

This was a great presentation of the housing crisis this country is experiencing and Nick is a fantastic ambassador for renters everywhere. Mention of Marxist approaches so often raises the spectre of soviet-style communism but Marx was far more egalitarian in his approach than people might suppose. Market forces are neither intrinsically good or bad but we do need to be clear where this mechanism can benefit society and where it needs to be restrained. There is no question that the commodification of the space we call home is a social evil. A roof over your head should be a right for all and a responsibility of government to ensure it happens. It should not be subject to market forces and the cost of renting or owning should be manageable. This is not just some socialist utopian hope that will drain the economy. When people feel secure about their home you increase their mental health, enable them to put their energies into building their lives by investing in themselves and their communities and turn them into net contributors rather than net receivers. Local authority ownership further enhances this economic benefit as it allows increased spending on local services. Gary (from Gary's economics) very wisely suggests we always need to work out who gets the money in the end and this episode is a great example of how capital wealth is being accumulated by the wealthy and reducing the capital of the lower economic orders while the government feeds this process through housing benefit.

Sounds like a future BBC Director General to me

Nice video. Not 100% sold on some of what was discussed, I'd need to look at the book but I do not think there is any good from private landlordism.

In the development market, it should be a legal requirement for all new builds to have solar panels and ground or air source heat pumps. And all developers should be paying 10/15% of the value of land that they have not developed for more than 6 months in tax per year.

I live in the North and just had my property valued by rics. Dispite having a buyer for the full asking price, achieved after 10 days on the market, the valuer devalued my property by almost 10%. The property was also given a rebuild cost of 140% over their valuation. A property in London is sold at massively inflated prices over the original build cost, and the banks are happy to accommodate this? What's happening?

No, no. We should be talking about Angela Rayner selling her ex-council house. But ignores the fact the current chancellor, ahem… ‘forgot’ to pay stamp duty on the 7, yes, 7 properties he purchased as a landlord…

The problem is buy to let mortgages.

If you are on housing benefit, you are unlikely to get a rental property in the UK, as soon as I ring a letting agent to view a property, the very first thing they ask is if I am in employment, and if it is a 12 month rent, they want 6 months up front, because I only earn 25k per year, and that is when I am viewing properties for under £900 per month, I cant house share because I have a son, who stays with me 2 to 3 times a week and the rest of the week with his mum.

Landlordism should become a capital offence.

So he is advocating 'Rent Control' which was actively tried in NSW back in the 1950's. It was an absolute disaster for the landlords who could not raise the rent, nor sell the property. This caused a sudden and vast contraction in available rental properties with people living in tents in some places, but those with 'government guaranteed' rentals would not move out! This did generate a private program of subtle evictions and rental scarcity which eventually led to a change of govt and policy.

You convinced me, when i go on my 6 month trip to turn an old piggery in to a holiday home, i wont rent my house out.

When I moved to London I had to pay to view properties to rent. Paid over £100. And that gave me access to view 5 properties out of a choice of 10 and I had a week to chose one.

Who provides housing when the smart money won't lend to someone and the councils are broke?

How does the government become a better landlord? Anyone who is in London and has ever lived in a council estate super old or new will know how dreadful it can be and potentially even more faceless. I remember going to pick up something from the council and in the queue was an old man who seamed exulted and told them when will the leak above him get fixed as it has been going for 3-4 weeks and the neighbour is not in( we also have a slow leak which hasn’t been attended for decades living with the fear we will be getting back home with a flood). I felt like telling him I’ll sort it out but I work in IT I’m not a plumber sadly. Can someone help me how the government/council being the landlord will fix anything? Cheap isn’t good if it’s living in flooding.

This gentleman seems to be unaware of the reality facing some of us who were trying to get a decent return in a situation where interest rates were at rock bottom in the time that we were accumulating sufficient wealth to stand a chance of having a decent retirement when our earning years were largely over. Having bought my properties a long time ago, I don't feel responsible for today's insane house prices. I might add that, while rents have been going up, so have costs. As most of my properties are leasehold, I am not actually the landlord of these properties. If the 'maintenance costs' go up, I have no redress and have to pay up. Courtesy of Covid, I have not received rent from one particular property for a number of years, and in another case, rent due to me has been paid by the tenant, but not passed on to me by a third party for over a year now. All I have been trying to do is generate enough income to have a decent retirement. Sorry if you feel that has been such a heinous crime in your eyes.

He does love himself that is for sure :) As a landlord, i do not consider myself good or bad, that way of looking at it is far too emotional. I am a good dad, husband and friend to my close network, but in terms of my property investments............... I am efficient, profitable and savvy.

Amazingly informative Thank you for sharing

My parents are small-time landlords. Firstly, I'm sorry you feel there are no ethical landlords. I'd image there are plenty (probably the majority) of landlords who are awful and renting in a big city must be horrible. I also agree with some of the things you say, including a sort of rent control. I don't agree with everything however. My parents converted their storerooms above their shop into flats before the landlord trend that you talk about came about. The flats are well appointed, looked after, well-located, and guess what? The rent hasn't been increased in over 15 years, and was pretty low back then anyway. The flats are rented via an estate agent, and yes, they are always encouraging my parents to increase the rent. My parents refuse to do so. Their mortgage on the property was paid off ages ago and they are happy with the income they pick up. They'd rather they had tenants who have a home for as long as those tenants wanted to consider it their home, rather than being greedy, increasing the rent and driving out tenants. This, from my travels, sounds like the experience on the continent you talk about. Turns out, the people who live in the flats have been there for years and years. Those few that have moved on are those who eventually meet someone and settle down, want to move on to a bigger place or whatever. My parents have even taken tenants to hospital appointments, took them to visit family etc because often they only have public transport to rely on. Just some more anecdotal evidence that there are some landlords out there who are genuinely good people, as it does appear the majority of your commenters don't think so (and I understand why!). My next door neighbours, a lovely old Christian couple (the husband is severely disabled), rent out the spare bedroom to a single guy. He's been there for over a decade. Happy with the price that's probably never increased, and with the room he is renting. I used to live in a big expensive city outside the UK. I rented a room from a couple, easily $200 per month less than other places, and were the best. So much so I still remain friends with them and often go and visit them!

I bought my home, a large Victorian terraced house, in 1984: As a single woman in my early 30s (no parents, no children, no support system) I wanted a base from which to continue my travels and to work overseas. Having first grown up living in a 2-up/2-down mid-terrace house with no hallway, coal fire, cold tap, tin bath and outside toilet and later, in my teens/20s, in a newly built 3-bedroom mid-terrace council house with no hallway, coal fire, hot water, bathroom, indoor toilet but no central heating, I wanted a house big enough to share and with a hallway with a stair banister to slide down: As a child there'd been no banister to slide down and, from my late teens onwards, I'd enjoyed living in shared houses. My parents had both died by the mid-70s/early 80s when I was in my early 30s; there was little to inherit but I was a saver not a spender! 1984: For the first year in my own house I shared my 5-bedroom home with 2 young French students and a 20-year-old black woman who had grown up in Cleethorpes. Later my tenants were post-grads who, tempted by Manchester's nightlife, had decided to stay; in those days 'The Hacienda' was flourishing! When I was overseas they had the place pretty much to themselves but I had a base to return to and a community, albeit they were usually 10-15 years younger than me. 1992: Having failed to successfully cross a road in Naples, I returned to the UK and in 1994 I opened Manchester's first BackPackers Hostel in a pair of adjoining, 1930s bog-standard, semi-detached houses: One house accommodated up to 20 short-stay guests in 4-6 bed dormitories. The other house offered weekly/monthly rental rates in 4 serviced twin-shared rooms: In those days, before the internet and when shorthold tenancies + deposits were the norm, it was pretty much impossible for backpackers to find somewhere inexpensive for just a few months. In the early noughties my local council closed the Manchester BackPackers Hostel, claiming that 6 parking spaces, with the potential for more, was insufficient for guests who rarely arrived by car; the council later granted Gary Neville planning permission for 'Hotel Football' with no private car parking provision. I had never planned on being a landlord, apart from my house-share, but by the early noughties when the local authority closed 'Joan's Place', both houses were let to tenants whilst I went overseas: I'd already decided that, on my return, I'd focus on setting-up small walkers/cyclists hostels/community hubs with co-operative housing above: aka the 3rdAge Hostelling Association. In 2005 the houses were let to tenants but I returned in 2006 to find that the houses had been turned into 'cannabis factories', substantially damaging floors, walls, electrics and plumbing. The houses have remained empty since then as, following the financial crash of 2008, I struggled to raise the funds to repair them but hoped to retain them as part of 3rdAge Hostelling and Housing's project. Location, location, location: Developers/ landlords wish to buy these properties but altruism is not on their agenda. I've spent 20 years trying to protect the houses from thieves, vandals and developers but on Tuesday, 09 April 2024 my local authority will sue to have me declared bankrupt for non-payment of 300% Council Tax on uninhabitable, now semi-derelict, houses. Empty houses are a blight and trying to protect them is expensive and time consuming. People don't intentionally leave properties empty for long periods, there's often a back-story of loss, stress, ill-health and ageing. The stress of a similar situation contributed to the death of a friend of mine. I'm obviously still alive but living well below the poverty line for so many years and, since Covid, living in a home without heating or water on a pension of £120 per week has taken its toll. My pension went up in smoke, literally! Anybody need any plant pots? Good intentions are often punished!

And yet the numbers don’t support his point. The UK has one of the smallest number of dwelling units per head in Europe by a fairly wide margin. If you consider the extreme concentration of the population in London, there could only be undersupply. Add to this the large population of foreigners and generally low-rise nature of the city. Yes, there are foreign investors with homes in the city and it surely has an effect on an already low supply of houses. This video is true gaslighting but of course young people crowded into London will love it. Of course, you could never expect people like this to address basic realties like geography and density of units near transit or costs of constructions. He’s a lawyer. What do you think he wants it to be about?

Bano is absolutely right about this. When people advocate for more housing in this country, unfortunately they also advocate for the destruction of our countryside and farmland, not to mention the pressure on failing infrastructure like water/sewage. I beg you to come to Norfolk, I’ll show you the thousands of new houses going up everywhere, ruining local villages and towns. MEANWHILE, the Center of these villages and towns are hollowed out by rich investors, turning them into airbnbs or holiday homes they spend 1 week a year in. All the while rich housing companies rake in obscene profits given to shareholders, local working class families can’t afford houses where they grew up. The houses they’re building are horrible, aren’t built properly and have tiny courtyard gardens that are pointless.

Great Britain has been ruled by glorified landlords throughout its history. Ending landlordism would hands down be the most radical and best things that has ever happened to this country. Ending the monarchy would also help people across the globe, since they're glorified international landlords.

We also need to consider how to fix this without causing big sudden drop in house prices.. otherwise decent people who've bought their homes are likely to end up in negative equity. If only the tossers in the government had prevented this runaway house price inflation then a correction would be like falling out of a tree, painful. However now a big correction will be like falling off a tall building, fatal for some

I started renting in 2022 at £875pcm and now in 2024 my rent was only upped to £900pcm (where the average in the area is more like £1200). Am very grateful that the rent increase was manageable.

Nick I look forward to learn that you have become an MP and to see how you try to change current and previous Governments have decided not to build enough Social Housing. That you have stopped the Right To Buy of Social Housing. I have decided to listen to you and stop being a Landlord of 22 years. My longest Tenants have been with me since 2007 and 2010. I have never used Letting Agents to manage my properties. My rents are below local rents. I have decided to serve section 21 on all my Tenants. Sadly there is no Social Housing for them to rent therefore they will become homeless. When they ask me why I will refer them to you. I am sure you will be able to help them in Court during the Section 21 hearing. I look forwards to hear what arguments you will use !

Most European countries have very high rental rates rather than home ownership, I don’t force anyone to move into my property, I also charge below the going rate. I don’t exploit anyone. I like everyone else works hard and have been careful with my money throughout my life. I invested in the property because I have done without the other “essentials” and have been able to afford it.

this is wrong to only keep making private landlords the complete villain. there's enough large housing association's but of course we all want to get onto waiting list so there's only so much, so stop slagging off the private landlords/

I had a dream that i won the lottery and the thing that shocked me when i woke up, I felt happy that rent would be covered until I buy a place for me and my family. Then for about 25 minutes i used my professional experience in financial support advice and mortgage advice to think of the fairest way to purchase property to rent out with a large amount of funds like that. (E.g. undercutting the rental price from evaluation to reduce the value to what would have been paid 5 years prior to devalue other rental prices in areas of madening increase in rates) And set it up as a clause of as long as set behaviour is followed during tenancy of over a set period of time, the option to purchase the property or have a lump sum returned from the rent as a deposit source. Too bad i'm not going to win life changing amounts of money

The answer is in supply. If your rents are too high the market should, should adjust itself with more supply of premises if govt gets out of the way. Not likely, govts want all the control.

Not everyone wants to or can afford to buy a house, so there’s always going to be a need for a rental market. It needs better control in terms of tenants rights, affordability and providing homes with a high standard of quality. The main problem is growing wealth inequality driving up house prices and therefore rents, in my opinion