The huge problems facing tenants and landlords in the rental market in Wales

Tenants battling soaring rents and tight vacancy rates have turned to “desperate measures” in the struggle to find a home, while property managers are faced with testing conditions.

With vacancy rates at record lows, rents across the country have continued to climb, with some cities recording increases as high as 22 per cent.

Finance Director at Harry Harper Sales & Lettings, Cardiff - Sandra Blake said conditions are as tight as she’s ever seen.

“We currently have just four properties available from our rental list of nearly 200 properties,” Ms Blake said.

“Over the past six months, our stock has sold to owner-occupiers and not investors, so there’s very little on the market.

“We’ve also found that when a property sells, we’ve been moving the tenants who are already known to our agency into another property, so many properties are not even hitting the market.”

Ms Blake said frustrated tenants were lashing out at property managers as they struggled to find a property to rent.

“We allocate our slots to view a property for 30 people and a lot of the frustration is when prospective tenants miss out on even registering to view, and this has led to a lot of abuse for our staff,” she said.

“The abuse that we’re copping is beyond ridiculous.”

Ms Blake said increasing rents were also putting a lot of financial pressure on already-stretched renters. She said many prospective tenants weren’t able to afford the properties they applied for, but had turned to “desperate measures”.

According to data 45 per cent of UK tenants struggled to pay their rent in April, up from 28 per cent 12 months ago.

Rents are now £62 per month higher on average than when the UK coronavirus lockdowns first started, analysis has found.

Wales saw the third highest rent price rise at 9.8 percent, coming behind only London and Northern Ireland, which each saw increases of more than ten percent.

Across the UK, the average monthly rent was £969 by the fourth quarter of 2021, Zoopla said. Households who agree new lets are now having to pay an additional average annual cost of £744, or £62 per month, compared with typical costs in March 2020, the property website added.

Life is getting harder for tenants. “This spike in rental costs is putting a lot of pressure on tenants, and it’s leaving them with very little money left over for other necessities,” Ms Blake said.

“Once they pay the rent – life is very hard.

“Some tenants simply can’t afford the rapid increase in their rent in such a short amount of time and there are even stories of families being forced out to live in their cars, or sofa surf.”

Ms Blake said the rental market had become cut-throat in many locations around the country.

“Applicants are offering hundreds of pounds more per week than the asking price just so they have somewhere to live,” she said.

“Others are being forced to move in with family or friends just to keep a roof over their heads.

“I know of one landlord whose tenant moved out this month.

“Their property manager advised them to increase the rent by £300 a month– £3,600 a year.

Ms Blake said one of the drivers of low vacancy rates had been the pandemic-induced eviction moratoriums, which had created a supply bottleneck.

She said the Government needed to do more to incentivise property owners. “Legislation needs to change to support owners,” she said.

“With the new bill that they’re proposing at the moment, that will just create bedlam as they’re trying to remove the section 21 Notice no clause notice and we need to have an out.

“They’re also looking at putting a blanket no rent increase – so why would you be an investor in Wales?”

For those struggling with rental increases, Ms Blake said they should be proactive and reach out to their property manager.

“If you can’t afford your rent and you have a lease now, reach out to your property manager and see if you can come to an agreement with your landlord,” she said.

‘Wales on Line’ reported- David Gould, co-owner of family-run business The Landlords Letting Company, says over the last five to 10 years he has seen first hand the "demise" of the rental industry.

He said: "The Welsh Government has been hammering away at this industry and against the agents and landlords putting more restrictions and costs against us. It has been a barrage to navigate over the last few years.

"As a result if you've got multiple properties you've got no choice but to sell. Over the last two to three years particularly we have seen so many landlords leaving and selling up. I'm expecting the rate in which landlords start selling their properties to increase.

"With new restrictions being imposed it prevents new landlords from buying, which means less houses are available to rent, which makes it even more competitive.

" With landlords having to sell, this has had a huge impact on the number of properties that are available to renters. Mr Gould said he regularly has people through his door who are desperate for somewhere to live and have been searching for up to eight months.

He said: "Every property we put live at the moment we have over 200 enquiries for every single one.

"We then have to narrow it down as it would be impossible to show that many people a property, so you cut out those with pets and those on benefits and that brings it down to around 25 to 30 people.

"We have 15-minute slots to show people around from 10am to 5pm and are back to back.

"What happens then is people are so desperate for properties they are willing to bid way over what they're being advertised for and some are offering a year's rent upfront - many can't compete with that.

"The latest data shows Wales is still the UK's region with the highest average house price increase - 16.7% between June 2020 and June 2021 compared to 13.3% in England, 12% in Scotland and 9% in Northern Ireland.