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Very few people actually want to rent
long term, probably not.
but short / medium term; yes lots of people want to rent. it isn't practical or desirable for everyone to be home owners all the time.
a supply of decent, secure, affordable rental properties is a good thing. the argument is about who should provide it and how.
ChasnotRobert-
It isn't practical or desirable for everyone to be home owners all the time.
For what it's worth, I think there's room for reform in the purchase market too. Ideally you'd make it as easy as possible to move at relatively short notices, reaping some of the wider economic benefit of the 'flexible labour market' that usually underpins arguments for private rental provision.
a supply of decent, secure, affordable rental properties is a good thing. the argument is about who should provide it and how.
Yep, totally agree. Our current arrangement is batshit, so any movement toward social/co-op provision and stronger protections in the private market would be a step in the right direction.
slippers
I had 6, and all were pleasant enough people, but 3 of them evicted us with one month notice because they were 'selling up'. In all honesty, I think that's what they thought at the time, but only one month later, the places were up on rightmove for rent at a higher price. Meanwhile we had to shell out an extra few hundred quid each time, plus moving costs and all the stress that goes with it.
That's great, but at some point you have to ask whether this is a good way to structure society, not just relying on stories of one-off situations where lucky individuals got a deal. It probably wouldn't be difficult to do a carve out for these specific scenarios anyway.
Very few people actually want to rent, and this is borne out by many many surveys.
Of course it isn't, and a best-case scenario is that this situation will take decades to fix. The slack can be taken up by many more people than just councils too, and even then, their funding models are changing to allow investment in social housing.