Renting property, Property, Housing, Society Business | The Guardian
Stamping out surge pricing-style bidding wars would be welcome but they are a symptom of our broken renting systemAre you a forty- or fiftysomething who recently spent your whole Saturday in a queue for Oasis tickets, only to discover that, as you finally approached your purchase, you were unwillingly subjected to the whims of “dynamic pricing” – a sudden surge in the ticket cost the moment before you buy? If so, you experienced something like what most renters experience every time we try to find a new rented home.Often in London (and increasingly elsewhere), trying to secure a new tenancy – as I have done five times in the last eight years – involves attending a “‘mass viewing”. These usually take place on a Saturday morning. Interested parties arrive at 10-minute intervals over three hours or so. A gormless letting agent will make sure that you see the previous hopefuls on the way in, and the next group on the way out.Tom Darling is the director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition Continue reading…
Stamping out surge pricing-style bidding wars would be welcome but they are a symptom of our broken renting system
Are you a forty- or fiftysomething who recently spent your whole Saturday in a queue for Oasis tickets, only to discover that, as you finally approached your purchase, you were unwillingly subjected to the whims of “dynamic pricing” – a sudden surge in the ticket cost the moment before you buy? If so, you experienced something like what most renters experience every time we try to find a new rented home.
Often in London (and increasingly elsewhere), trying to secure a new tenancy – as I have done five times in the last eight years – involves attending a “‘mass viewing”. These usually take place on a Saturday morning. Interested parties arrive at 10-minute intervals over three hours or so. A gormless letting agent will make sure that you see the previous hopefuls on the way in, and the next group on the way out.
Tom Darling is the director of the Renters’ Reform Coalition
