The UK’s generation of tenants feels the country’s property market is cruel and unfair, a new research by estate agents LetBritain has revealed.
The study asked 2,000 adults living in the UK how they felt about the local property market and uncovered a deep-reaching negative sentiment from tenants towards the rental system currently provided.
Is the UK’s rental market letting down those most vulnerable?
Across the UK, there are currently 4.3 million rented households. And 40% of renters expressed that they felt like the process of securing a rental property through a high street agent is ruthless and unethical. One of the main practices named was gazumping other possible tenants with immoral methods.
Additionally, 37% of renters said that they felt like they were being misled by their estate agent when it came to the amount of competition they would be facing. For tenants in London, this number increased to 61% of all respondents.
A further 38% of tenants believe their estate agents actively advertised non-existing properties to them online that weren’t actually available on the market.
Almost one third of respondents also called the waiting list and unfair system as estate agents appeared to prioritise preferred tenants.
In total, 37% of renters in the UK think that the current system doesn’t really do the job, especially considering the speed and increasing demand of the sector. This number even increases to 50% when only looking at tenants in the capital.
Founder and CEO of LetBritain, Fareed Nabir, commented:
“Today’s research delivers some revealing insights into the opinions of generation rent. It is obvious that renters up and down the country feel let down by their estate agent – from luring them in with properties that aren’t available to misleading potential tenants about the competition they face, the country’s rental population is suffering at the hands of questionable practices. Clearly a faster, fairer and more transparent system is required to alleviate the time and stress involved in securing a rental property.”
