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The idea that housing benefit is driving the rental market is total nonsense. a) it forms a minority of the market and b) the majority of landlords won't let to
by dreamfactory 13y ago
The idea that housing benefit is driving the rental market is total nonsense. a) it forms a minority of the market and b) the majority of landlords won't let to people on housing benefit.
- mseebach 13y agoa) There are ~850k housing benefit claimants in Greater London[1], out of a total population of just under 5mm.[2] That's ~17%. Not a majority, to be sure, but also not small enough to discount entirely. b) Just because some landlords do not want to deal with non-claimant tenants doesn't mean that non-claimant tenants will only want to rent from such landlords, if it means cutting themselves off from lower rents. Theoretically removing those 850k people from the housing market would undoubtedly make the prices fall, if only for a while. 1: http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/indicators/topics/receiving-non-work-benefits/housing-benefit-caseload/ http://www.londonspovertyprofile.org.uk/indicators/topics/re... 2: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_London#Population_change http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_London#Populati...
- dreamfactory 13y agoInteresting. This is more than I'd have thought but you can't just remove them from the supply/demand picture and say they are driving prices up by their very existence. The OP's point I was addressing was that housing benefits being paid were above market rates (not true as they are capped) and this was pushing the whole market.