The English Housing Survey results were published yesterday and a few interesting trends were highlighted. Apparently rents in the social sector have increased more in the last twelve months than those in the private sector, which is good news for tenants forced into private rented housing, although the average rent increase is still less than the current rate of inflation.
The figures also indicate that the private rental sector is now larger than it has been for twenty years, which is probably a reflection of the recession and the state of the housing market.
Differences in rents
Long term tenants often enjoy far lower rent rates than those who stay in properties for shorter tenancies and the report highlighted the fact that tenants who had been living in their properties for a decade or more paid around 28% less than tenants who had lived their for less than three years. This situation is clearly better for both tenants and landlords: long-term tenants enjoy a greater discount and landlords can have the security of a long term, reliable tenant.
Sub-standard rental homes
The report notes a fall in the numbers of sub-standard rental properties being marketed by UK landlords: the number of homes failing to meet the Decent Homes standard set by the government has fallen from 47% to 35%, which is good news for tenants. In response to this, the RLA has commented that this could be improved even further if landlords were give more tax breaks to encourage them to invest more in their rental properties.
