Private rent in Britain now swallows 44% of the average wage | Renting property

No wonder the economy’s struggling when nearly half of earnings disappear to rent

Then blame young people for not drinking enough, not having relationships, not going out, not socialising, not having kids. If rent is 5% of income, pubs and restaurants will be crowded. People will have kids at young age. The economy will thrive. Well, I guess at least landlords are happy and they are saving the country from a depression, /s.

No wonder the economy is creaking when no one has cash to buy stuff because it’s all going on rent.

We need a mindset shift in society away from housing as a way to get rich/build wealth. Towards seeing houses as a place to live.

The government needs to do better on this with huge reforms. It’s a labour government with a huge majority and huge appetite in the country for change on this – could be an enormous vote winner for them.

And then 20% or more for tax. 10% for bills probably. How much for food? Transport? The odd trip out to see friends.

That’s without kids!

The system is designed to such perfection that people have nothing at the end of each month.

For all the people saying the problem is immigration and not enough housing…

I agree we haven’t built enough new housing.
Im also not a fan of small boats crossings.

But….if you believe for a second that landlords wouldn’t still be charging you 50% of your income even with more housing and low immigration, you’re living in a fantasy world.

Mortgages also rocketing too with so many coming off ultra low rates.

Money which used to go into economy but now goes to banks/landlords.

As I’ve said before, property ownership vs non ownership will be the next great class divide and inheriting/buying a house at all will be a very privileged position to be in.

Rest of us will be paying room and board to corporate landlords or wealthy family dynasties that own “property portfolios”.

Happening before our very eyes.

Each government promise to build more rental homes but never manage to live up to expectations . Not one party has succeeded in building enough .

Add into this a growing population and we can never keep up !

It’s a very controversial subject but because the UK can’t keep up , we need landlords to make up the shortfall .

The trouble is that because of new tax regimes brought in and the rise in mortgage costs , plus all the new legislation and costs of everything going up ….up to a third of landlords want to leave the market or have sold , leaving less choice and higher prices .

If you look back to pre covid , rents were reasonable and there was a good supply of rental homes , in fact rather than being one of 60 trying for a home , you’d have a choice.

It’s become a perfect storm !

How will billionaires cope if we build more housing and devaluate their assets?

When I was growing up people kept banging on about the 50/30/20 rule for salaries
– 50% spent on essentials and rent etc
– 30% on wants/ entertainment etc
– 20% on savings

With current rent and mortgage rates, how is this even physically possible?

This is the single biggest problem that British people face today, and it bleeds into every other problem we have.

People are paying their rent from their wages, their wages are paid by businesses, who have to pay their employees’ higher living costs (due to rent) with higher prices, which people can’t afford to pay due to their higher rents. Landlords buying up the housing stock drives up the price and makes it impossible to afford mortgages, and those who can afford to get a mortgage face enormous mortgage payments and are in a similar boat to renters.

Landlords don’t pump money back into the real economy, they continue in purchasing assets.

At the same time, the high cost of living tightly constrains the types of jobs that people are able to work. The reason why jobs are perpetually offshored is because necessary, productive jobs that do not pay well can’t be done in the UK. This makes the UK internationally uncompetetive. This comes at a time when many of the jobs that could still be undertaken in the UK and had the potential to command a high salary are being replaced by AI.

The first government that solves the rent crisis will trigger an enormous growth in the real, productive sectors of that country’s economy, but any government that fails to tackle it will ultimately doom it.

Yep my rent is bang on 44% of my wage atm l am managing okay with bills and food on top of that but not able to save much toward a house deposit

It’s disgusting. I’ve *just* managed to get out of renting after 20 years. Took 12 to save a meagre 5% deposit.

We’ve seen our last property just go on the rental market for £350 more a month than we were paying: which makes it more expensive now than our mortgage.

The Renters Rights Bill is not enough.

Good thing the government uses CPI as the measure for inflation, so it gets to completely ignore housing when claiming people are doing well.

Absolutely ridiculous.

If you’re wondering what happened, “Right to Buy” basically handed an entire generation the keys to the housing market.
Millions of council tenants bought their homes at huge discounts in the 80s and 90s, and most of those homes were never replaced. That meant a massive chunk of the affordable stock just vanished.

Prices went up, obviously – supply dropped while demand kept growing.
Then those same homeowners hit retirement age, saw how much equity they had, and started cashing it in. Some did equity release, some downsized, and plenty used the windfall to buy up smaller “starter” houses as buy-to-lets.

Home under the hammer basically documentarised this phenomenon.

So now you’ve got the same group who bought cheap council houses renting those ex-starter homes back to their kids and grandkids. The “boomers” nickname isn’t just about when they were born – it’s about the property boom they rode all the way to the top.

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Absolutely crazy to me that paying a mortgage is cheaper than renting. I’ve been trying to move out for two years but rent is ALOT. Mortgages are cheaper but I’d never be accepted.