As the Coronavirus continues sweeping across the world, the impact on the economy is becoming increasingly obvious. The housing market has, without a doubt, been affected. Many first-time buyers have struggled to get on the housing ladder, which is difficult enough without house prices rising and landlords requesting more rent.
As we glide into 2022, there are some predictions about the price of houses and the cost of rent. Predictions, however, are just that. In the current climate, it’s almost impossible to tell what’s going to happen to the housing sector. We can only hope that things will start to even out again and prices will eventually fall.
It has been predicted that there will be a rent price increase of approximately 3% across the country, but it may be up to as much as 10% in more expensive parts of the country. As this starts to happen, we’d like to remind our readers to check their tenancy agreements and read up on renting legislation.
To save you some time, here are some key things for renters to know about renting from a private landlord:
1. Your landlord can only increase your rent once per year on a rolling tenancy agreement (that’s an agreement where you pay your rent weekly or monthly without the need to sign a new contract once the original tenancy period ends).
2. For fixed-term tenancies, your landlord can only increase your rent if you agree to it during that fixed term. Once the term ends and the agreement starts rolling, your landlord can only increase your rent once a year unless you agree otherwise.
3. Your landlord must give you at least one month of notice before increasing rent if you’re on a rolling weekly or monthly contract. Yearly tenancies require 6 months of notice.
4. If you do decide to move out or your landlord asks you to – which is their right, as they own the property – your contract will state your notice period. This is usually one or two months. You must pay rent up to the end of the notice period.
Finally, be sure to check rent prices in your area because a fair rental increase should only be as much as what similar properties around you are asking for.
Property prices rose steadily throughout 2021 and late autumn to early winter saw some of the fastest house price growth in over a decade, with prices rising by 3.4% in the quarter that finished as November ended.
Part of this is due to the virus, some to government decisions, and some to the shortage of available houses that are required to meet the demand.
For buyers, we’re expecting to see a similar increase of 3% across the property market. Areas that may see higher increases in house prices include:
Rightmove predicts that the national asking price of a property (currently an average of £342,401) will rise by 5% next year.
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