Landlords just took the housing crisis to a whole new level

Landlords have hiked rents by up to 31% over the past three years, according to a report by Zoopla. At the average increase that’s a £221 rise in every single monthly rent payment. It shows an already well-established housing crisis is only getting worse as the ruling class continues its obsession with money for nothing or ‘rent’, as it’s referred to.

There was also an average £218 per rise in monthly mortgage payments. But at least people paying that are getting closer to owning their own, if overpriced in an inflated ‘asset’ market, home.

Labour’s house building: 6% social and not dealing with landlords

The Labour Party is doing little to address this, or deal with landlords.

The government clarified that it will deliver 90,000 social homes this parliament (and a further 90,000 if re-elected). But there are 1.3 million households already on the waiting list for social housing. So Labour are essentially throwing people a few crumbs here.

It also means that if Labour build 1.5m homes this parliament, only 6% will actually be social housing.

What’s more, social housing itself is even a low bar, given social tenants still must pay rent that does not contribute to ownership of the property. It’s only a win in comparison to private rents and landlords. One benefit is that it’s an income stream for the government. Instead, housing should be organised at cost price on a necessity basis with people consulted on design and location.

It’s not just inflated rents from landlords that are causing the housing crisis. Positive Money has calculated that between 1990 and 2022 landlords in England made £400bn because of real house price rises. That doesn’t include the rent people have been paying them. The ‘value’ of homes in England sky rocketed by an average of 432% over this period. It means a landlord who bought a property in 1990 and sold it in 2022 would make an average of £240,634 per house.

That’s literally taking away the housing stock, calling it an asset and sitting on it while the bank balance increases.

It’s the total opposite of Keir Starmer’s mantra of ‘make work pay’. It makes you wonder whether the targetting of people on benefits is simply projection.

Featured image via the Canary