Hannah Tomes

For Generation Rent, the landlord is king

  • From Spectator Life
(Getty images)

Last night, I posted an advert on property rental site SpareRoom: ‘Looking for someone to take over my room in Dalston/De Beauvoir from July. Beautiful house, large bedroom, overlooks a garden centre.’ By this morning, I had almost 60 inquiries.

Bleary eyed and fuzzy from sleep, I checked my email: it was inundated with prospective tenants offering to ‘pass’ interviews over Zoom before being granted a viewing or handing over large sums of money for the deposit before even seeing the place in person. One woman had contacted me from Australia.

Millennials are used to a nomadic existence

The overwhelming response to my advert, while a plus for me, is a symptom of the lack of housing in available in London at the moment – especially for members of Generation Rent (millennials who have been priced out of the buyers’ market). In March, there were reportedly almost 44 per cent fewer rooms to rent in the capital than last year. This is thought to have been caused by a combination of buy-to-let landlords selling up and people moving back in with family during the pandemic. The influx of renters back into cities marks a dramatic U-turn from the beginning of the pandemic, which saw renters heading to the country in droves.

Millennials are used to a nomadic existence. Analysis from March found that a quarter of millennials had moved house ten or more times since leaving home; a further quarter expect to move another five times before finding a permanent place. In comparison, the over-50s are likely to have lived in fewer than five houses in their lifetime. And 44 per cent of this age group have never lived with someone that isn’t part of their immediate family.

For Generation Rent, the landlord is king.

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