HMOs will replace small landlords and reduce family rental housing

[Slightyamusedandsilly]

Within the next few years, the number of landlords renting out single family homes will be miniscule. And the hatred of that type of landlord will be replaced with a hatred for developers converting and renting out HMOs, thus reducing rental stock for normal family life even further.

So if you think small scale landlords are greedy, watch this space. They have NOTHING on HMO owners.

Example. House on my street. They usually rent here for about £800 pcm. The 6 room HMO being converted now is going to rent out at £400-500 pcm per room.

This is the future.

My DS and his GF are living in an HMO, and I have to say I'd love their lifestyle. Affordable rent, readymade community, very responsive landord, no maintenance to worry about, no cleaning, except for their own room and bathroom, beautifly maintained communual areas and garden.

That does sound very nice. The one near me won't be anything like that. Small rooms. Cramped. Probably dark (no extra windows and it was dingy prior to conversion). No communal rooms other than a small kitchen.

These are just larger house shares meaning more people take up less space and housing.
Better than a couple renting a whole house with spare rooms

A room in an HMO is a bedsit with en suite. Shared kitchen.

I can't imagine any couple (once they're past 22/23ish) wanting to exist with another person in one room.

I'd have killed my husband if I was forced to live in one room with him!

My DS and GF are older than that and it seems to work well for them. Their housemates include much older people in their 50s and 60s. What they all seem to have in common is a zest for life that means they don't actually spend that much time at home. DS and GF work shifts which means they do each get some alone time, but when they're off together, they're not sitting in their room. The communal areas create a real community too, when peiple are in the building they're not sitting isolared in their rooms. There's always company in the kiitchen and dining areas.

It's perhaps not what "we" would have aspired to, but I can absolutely see the appeal of affordable accomodation, cared for by someone else, and plenty of time and money for things more important to you.

I’m aware what a HMO is @Slightyamusedandsilly

Yes I agree @Lakesfun
I lived in shared houses like this till I was about 28
I couldn’t afford to buy till my early 30s so had little choice but tbh you get to meet a lot of different people and make lots of friends
When you’re in a big city it’s less isolating and obviously, affordable

Surely this is the endpoint if lots of people come into the country and we don't build enough housing ?

People living in smaller and smaller spaces.

An HMO is (generally as there are variations) three or more unrelated people sharing a house and communal areas. Often shared toilets and kitchens. My DD lives at a student HMO at her university city. My friend stayed in a bedsit saving for a deposit - shared toilet but she had her own kitchen. And most of us lived in a mixed house shares after graduating uni and getting our first jobs. An exercise in compromise.
Some council’s arbitrarily declare all rentals in an area must have HMO licenses - I had to pay £750 to get one for my tiny two bed flat in Fulham.
I don’t know why, OP, that you think HMOs are going to take over. I’m not selling my two rental properties. Certainly some private landlords are selling properties, but the rentals are not being taken over by big corporations but more private landlords are getting tax savvy and becoming limited companies. They are fewer ‘hobby’ or ‘accidental’ landlords but they still command 70% of the total rental market. HMOs account for just under 10% of the market, though this increasing, though I wonder how many are ‘HMOs’ by licensing like my property above?

Have you not seen the news? Net migration is falling significantly, and so are birth rates. It won't be long before a falling population is the crisis.

If individual rooms don’t have a window, isn’t that illegal?

Rooms like bathrooms, utility rooms, halls etc don’t have to have windows.

No EXTRA windows. So one room has a tiny corner window. Basically, it was one room that was partitioned into two rooms and one of the rooms has this tiny window. Not big enough to climb out of in an emergency.

It's not a good HMO. It was a normal, smallish 3 bed home before and now there are 6 rooms to let in it.

That wasn't an insult! It was just me going through the 'imagine living in that tiny space with another person' thing. I could just about do it if I was young and it was just me. But imagine that being all of your living space and sharing it!

I live in a 3 bed terraced house with a 4th bedroom loft conversion. Next door is just the 3 bed, but it is a 6 bed HMO. They are hemmed in and there is no maintenance at all to the communal areas. Chatting over the fence, the Landlord refuses to even provide a WiFi connection.

HMOs used to be much more commonplace. I lived in several bedsit before I could afford to rent my own flat. One only had half a window, where it had been partitioned off into 2 units.
I've noticed some of the younger property developers are embracing this - some wanted to make the house next door into an HMO. It only has 1 bedroom and a box room, and they wanted to cram some into the cellar. It didn't pass planning though.

She will be one those people who believe 40k boat people are the reason for all the ills in this country whereas it is net migration falling and the low birth rates, with a huge aging population i have no idea who these people think are going to be paying taxes in 15 -20 years

As a 48yr old woman that appeals to me if it was in London, but that vast majority will be nothing like that unfortunately.

What is the reason for the thread OP - not sure what you are getting at. Is it the idea that immigration is reducing available housing stock? Which as a pp pointed out is not true, especially going forward into the future.

The new rules mean renting is going to be more pay as you go rather than signing up for year long contracts so I expect people will rent more generally as it is less restrictive. So after selling a property moving to rented for a few months might make more sense or renting somewhere for the summer months rather than an expensive holiday let. I think the new rules will bring about more changes than we realise. So if a landlord an HMO is probably a better bet if there is no guarantee of income if people might only be there for a few months anyway.

No, the point really was based off another thread about landlords (and I didn't want to derail it) which discusses the way small landlords are selling up and the LL's that remain will be big corporations who are a lot more cut throat.

But it's an observation of mine based on the soon to come HMO on my street. And making the link between the rise in HMO's and the very short supply of private rental single family homes.

I honestly feel bad for people. I agree, nothing wrong with an HMO room if you're 19. Shared kitchen, own bathroom. Fine. But I wouldn't want to live that way at 30. And it doesn't really seem fair that people should have to.

They didn’t call them HMOs when I was a student. They were bedsits, with a washbasin, a shared bathroom, probably a coin fed gas fire and a Baby Belling to cook on. Dh’s cost 32/6d a week (about £1.60).

They were generally pretty grim.

You never hear of bedsits now, just studio flats, but they do come with their own bath/shower room and loo.

I was 😱 some years ago to see the HMO rents being asked in Oxford - not a smart part) for a property that had sold in the 90s for relative peanuts. (Yes, I’d had a good old nose on NetHousePrices). The LL must have been royally coining it in.

Are big corproation LLs necessarily a problem? In my experience, of DC's student accopodation, properties run by the big corporates were much better maintained than the private landlords.

I think not always actually. One of the rentals I lived in wasn't owned by a small landlord and there was less hassle from them.

But I also think they'll be ruthless if they want a tenant out, whereas an individual will have a lot less power.

HMO’S don’t appeal to everyone confined space and what if you have children.

But equally they do appeal to others who don’t have the same requirements. OP may not enjoy what she considers to be the rather unedifying prospect of HMO living, but for others it’ll be the perfect outcome. And whilst some HMOs will be dire, others will be perfectly serviceable. I think OP thinks it’ll be like Rising Damp or something.