Sun Nov 18, 2018 9:28 pm
#1651769
I attempt to dispel the "greedy landlord myth.
The government has sold off loads of housing-stock (think Police, Armed forces MQ
and, of course LA social housing.....funded by ratepayers who owned their own, then, the tenants contributed rates as well. The council -tenant had the benefit of free maintenance and replacements and the rent was considerably lower than the private sector......It gave the low-income family a leg-up. But the system failed.....people considered it , not as a stepping-stone to self-sufficiency, but as a defined choice of lifestyle- newspaper and magazine classifieds were rife with ads for swaps of council house tenancies......then, the right to buy, at a generous discount, meant that those who's kids were grown and moved out, could buy, stay or sublet a room for a period, and trouser a profit.....this at the expense of families on the waiting-list.
Meanwhile, the private landlord has a higher minimum-deposit, a much higher interest rate (I tried! same lender, but a subsidiary)...found an ideal property for a homeless family I was close to.....Even putting another house up as security, valued at 150% of the loan- property, the costs and interest charges exceeded the market-rent value....and that's before the Government started taxing all rent!
Many private landlords are getting out of the market because they are literally subsidising the tenant (and some do bilk and run, others abuse and turn the place into dereliction, turn the house into a Cannabis-farm, a pop-up brothel, drugs-den).... Only profit *might* come from the increase in value,assuming good tenants...then the government taxes the capital gain.
Social housing needs sorting out.....Make tenants aware that it's not a permanent home....As singletons start a family...they move to bigger....as the "at home" family shrinks...they move to smaller....they have a choice...car/boat/TV/ foreign holidays/ pubs/clubs - or save for a deposit on their own home where they can choose freely .or the dwindling private-rental market,again, a free choice....they have no *right* to "the penny andthe toffee, but the current generation seem to think the world does, indeed owe them a living and they have no obligation to contribute.
It is, indeed, a complex problem and a post here only scratches the surface.