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  • Writer's pictureInvestment Synergy Team

Opinion: My foray into the 2024 rental market was worse than imagined.

Good luck to fellow renters looking for places this summer - you'll need it.

Callum Mason - i


Renting has got more expensive and more difficult in the past year – the data makes that very clear.

Private rental prices paid by tenants rose 6.2 per cent in 2023, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, but these only tell a fraction of the story.

The biggest rises have been seen by those facing ‘new rents‘ – those who are looking for a new home – with property portal Zoopla saying these have gone up 7.8 per cent in the same time frame.

Those searching also face a race against others, with the amount of time listings are advertised being slashed by 10 days since the pre-pandemic period, according to estate agency Savills.

But, as I’ve found this year, the data only truly comes to life when you experience looking for somewhere to rent yourself.


Having last moved into a new rental in 2021 – as part of a house share – I found the rental market in 2024, while now looking for a flat of my own, to be a different world.

There were a range of different issues that seemed to make everything far more difficult than they were three years ago.

With the ordeal now over – and me finally having somewhere to live – I’ve run through below some of the biggest problems I found.


Lightning-fast reflexes needed

The Savills data mentioned above rings true to me – though listings being up for 25 days seems like a dream.

I can only assume this average is dragged up by some homes being on the market for months on end.

In my experience, if you saw a flat you liked, you needed to ring straight away. Within the hour.

On a couple of occasions, when at work, I did not phone for a few hours, only to be told that 25 other people had already rung.

“We can ring you back if none of them take it,” the staff member told me. “But I think that’s quite unlikely.”


The experience doesn’t get any easier once you’ve secured the viewing.

One thing that made me confident when submitting an offer for my current place was that they gave me a fairly decent chunk of time to view the flat, with no other viewings present.

Generally, though, I found I was whisked round places in minutes, often with two or three others, and then told to submit an offer within hours. Not what you want when you’ll be parting with hundreds of pounds per week for the privilege.


‘We’re selling up – but you can stay until we do’

The Bank of England has said it is difficult to measure if there has been a recent decline in the size of the private rental sector, but there are plenty of anecdotes from estate agents and mortgage brokers about more landlords selling up in recent months.

It certainly seemed that way to me, whether it’s accurate or not.

A bugbear of mine when looking, this time round, was the number of flats where the landlord was trying to sell the property at the same time as renting it.

Even more of a bugbear was when this was not made clear before the viewing.

“So this will be an initial six-month let, and after that there’ll be a two-month notice period,” I was told on more than one occasion.

This might work for some people who wanted somewhere short term, but why not attract only those people to view by saying so beforehand?

And who wants six months of people traipsing through your house every week? Very few, I’d imagine.


A complete lack of effort

Something I found most annoying on my searches was the patent lack of effort some landlords and estate agents put into their listings.

No floorplans, minimal pictures, no knowledge of the energy performance certificate (EPC) rating – even though this is a legal requirement for rentals and you can look it up.

On one occasion, I remember asking the estate agent what furniture came with the property.

“I don’t know, but if you submit a bid we’d be able to get a list before you sign,” I was told.

No chance was I doing that – if I’m going to put an offer on something, I want to know what I’m offering for, rather than it being an afterthought. 

My only theory as to why this lack of information occurred was because landlords knew the harsh reality: there’s such a shortage of properties that some desperate tenant would rent the place anyway.

Cynical – but, sadly, almost certainly correct.


Ultimately, it all confirmed to me what I have been writing about for the past year.

The private rental sector is in a difficult place. Whatever the reasons, the losers are sadly those tenants who are simply trying to find a home.


Investment Synergy - This situation is prevalent globally, and in specific regions of certain countries, including Spain, private rental tenants face exorbitant upfront costs. Agents and landlords often show little care and consideration, as supply and demand appear to drive a shift in ethics and behaviors.




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