Desperate Measures in the UK Rental Market: Offering Gifts, Resumes, and Long-Term Rent to Stand Out as a Tenant

Rental competition is at an all-time high in cities such as London, Birmingham, and Manchester due to an increase in demand and a shortage of available properties. Demand for rental properties is up 20% year-on-year due to people returning to cities after Covid, growing student populations, and high interest rates making it harder for people to exit the rental market and get onto the property ladder. Available properties are down 9% in the same period, possibly due to landlords selling up and a national shortage of new-build homes. As a result, average rental asking prices have reached a record high of £1,162 per calendar month outside of London and £2,343 in London, a 16% annual increase according to Rightmove. The lack of supply in the market is causing stress for agents and tenants, with some landlords requesting record sums. The charity Shelter reports that one in seven UK tenants faced a rent increase in October. 

In order to address the issue, the government will need to increase construction and undergo major planning reform. According to research by Heriot-Watt University, the country needs to build 145,000 affordable homes each year. In 2021-22 the number completed in England was 59,175. Labour has set a 70 per cent home ownership target, a rise of about 5 per cent. Its leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has pledged to meet this with mortgage schemes, planning reform and suppression of buy-to-let landlords and second homeowners.

The private rental market has become so competitive that prospective tenants are offering to pay up to 24 months’ rent up front, submitting 1,000-word personal statements about their hobbies and relationships, being interviewed by landlords and wooing estate agents with presents. Desperate tenants are also offering well above the asking price. Pre-pandemic, tenants could negotiate with landlords and choose their home. Things are different now. Landlords will be looking for tenants with no pets, no children, non-smokers, in full-time employment with high incomes. People are asked where have been living, why they are moving, how the tenants know one another and how long they plan to stay.