At the turn of the century in 1900s America, the conditions in the States were about as different and disparaging as you could get. On the one hand, you had the rich lands of upscale New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and other areas that would one day inspire such high-society masterpieces as the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, who would herself become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. On the other hand of things you had the squalor and poverty in rented tenements and shared housing as documented in How the Other Half Lives, another award-winning publication.
So which way are Britain’s rented homes trending?
The answer—perhaps both directions, and all at once.
The Good
On the positive side of things, the boom in the housing market has meant that the quality of landlordship has steadily gone up. After all, success tends to breed more success, and such is what we find when it comes to landlords. Those landlords that invest in their property, work with letting agencies and do what they can to keep the quality of living high are able to keep in the black and out of the red. At present, landlords can enjoy some massive tax breaks by doing just that— up to £7 billion annually is deducted from the taxes of landowners.
The Bad
However, this sadly does not include everyone, and at least one third of rented homes right now are currently described as falling beneath what is considered an acceptable decency standard. The offenses here are too numerous to list, and too varied in terms of the who, where, when and how. What does matter, however, is that keeping a home in good working order and well above decency standards isn’t just important from a legal perspective but, indeed, should be a matter of pride. What’s more, there are ways to do this without risking a loss of profit, and failure to do so can itself lead to a loss on profit.
What This Means
It’s none too hard nowadays for individuals to snap photos of homes below decency standards and post them online. Once they do this, your reputation as a landowner may take a serious hit and, as a result, so might your business. Sites such as Yelp! and Onlet that can refer tenants to landlords based on previous reviews and knowledge of that landlord’s quality and dealings with his or her clients—but they can just as easily skip over a bad landlord in favor of a good one. All in all, this isn’t too difficult a problem to fix, because the profits for housing right now are soaring at such a high rate that, even when making repairs to properties and ensuring that everything is up to snuff and up to code, “the Other Third” right now living in substandard housing can be given better conditions without it truly ruining the profit margin of these companies.
www.onlet.co.uk
So which way are Britain’s rented homes trending?
The answer—perhaps both directions, and all at once.
The Good
On the positive side of things, the boom in the housing market has meant that the quality of landlordship has steadily gone up. After all, success tends to breed more success, and such is what we find when it comes to landlords. Those landlords that invest in their property, work with letting agencies and do what they can to keep the quality of living high are able to keep in the black and out of the red. At present, landlords can enjoy some massive tax breaks by doing just that— up to £7 billion annually is deducted from the taxes of landowners.
The Bad
However, this sadly does not include everyone, and at least one third of rented homes right now are currently described as falling beneath what is considered an acceptable decency standard. The offenses here are too numerous to list, and too varied in terms of the who, where, when and how. What does matter, however, is that keeping a home in good working order and well above decency standards isn’t just important from a legal perspective but, indeed, should be a matter of pride. What’s more, there are ways to do this without risking a loss of profit, and failure to do so can itself lead to a loss on profit.
What This Means
It’s none too hard nowadays for individuals to snap photos of homes below decency standards and post them online. Once they do this, your reputation as a landowner may take a serious hit and, as a result, so might your business. Sites such as Yelp! and Onlet that can refer tenants to landlords based on previous reviews and knowledge of that landlord’s quality and dealings with his or her clients—but they can just as easily skip over a bad landlord in favor of a good one. All in all, this isn’t too difficult a problem to fix, because the profits for housing right now are soaring at such a high rate that, even when making repairs to properties and ensuring that everything is up to snuff and up to code, “the Other Third” right now living in substandard housing can be given better conditions without it truly ruining the profit margin of these companies.
www.onlet.co.uk