A new survey over 2,000 UK adults by online estate agent LetBritain has uncovered the sentiments of those in Britain’s rental market.
According to the data, 40% of UK renters, or 7.21m people, called the marketplace, ‘ruthless and unethical,’ citing unscrupulous letting agents and gazumping as their main irks.
Demand
37% said that the present rental system is unfit for purpose as it cannot meet demand and cannot adapt to the changing speeds in the market. Another 37% said that they have been misled by an estate agent with regards to the competition that they faced from rival renters.
In addition, 38% of UK renters said that they were knowingly advertised properties that were never available, while 31% feel they lost out as their estate agent preferred another tenant.
40% of renters feel the marketplace is ‘ruthless and unethical’
Given that there are 4.3m rented households across Britain, a large number of tenants are seemingly disillusioned by the process of securing a property through a high street agent.
Fareed Nabir, founder and CEO of LetBritain, noted: ‘Today’s research delivers some revealing insights into the opinions of generation rent. It is obvious that renters up and down the country feel let down by their estate agent – from luring them in with properties that aren’t available to misleading potential tenants about the competition they face, the country’s rental population is suffering at the hands of questionable practices. Clearly a faster, fairer and more transparent system is required to alleviate the time and stress involved in securing a rental property.’[1]
[1] http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/uk-renter-sentiment-revealed-in-new-survey.html