On Tuesday 11th November I gave a talk to members of York Residential Landlords Association. I brought up the subject of rents and asked how many landlords were finding that they were increasing rents in the current economic climate. The results were as follows:
0% were dropping rents
5% were increasing rents
95% were keeping rents the same.
However, the newspapers would have you think otherwise, especially when we see headlines saying that rents in some places are increasing and in other places are soaring. However, my own experiences are that rents are not increasing, but instead they are stagnant and in some cases falling.
Why?
Well, don’t forget we are going through the credit crunch and everybody is being affected by it in some way. What that means is that people are cutting back on their expenditure. It does not mean that tenants are going to start paying landlords more for rent just because they are unable to buy property.
Don’t forget, tenants need to factor in all kinds of expenses when they rent a property. Tenants need to factor in the ever-increasing utilities costs, council taxes and living expenses on top of any rent they pay. That is why they are unlikely to pay higher rents in the current economic climate.
If anybody agrees or disagrees with my comments then please do let me know as I just can’t see how rents are generally on the increase, which is what we are led to believe by the press.
