Who doesn’t love Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme?” IT’s one of the true masterpieces of the opera stage. It features some of the most scintillating, soaring arias of its time, and a love story that has warmed the hearts of millions, all whole centering on a simple if eternally-pertinent place and theme—artists living in a bohemian apartment complex trying to make ends meet and pay the rent. It’s something that anyone can relate to, right? There was even an American Broadway adaptation, “RENT”—nowhere near as good as the original, of course but still, showing the power that rent and renting has over the popular imagination of the Western world. Simply put, we are and, for a while now, have been a nation that’s on the midst of a renting boom, and as a result, we’ve grown more in tune with this sort of ideal.
But who are the landlords in this brave new renting world?
Let’s take a look.
1. To begin with, what do you think of when you think of a landlord? Unless you thrill to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and immediately think of his landlady, Mrs. Hudson, chances are many out there have an almost Dickensian view of landlords as a sort of untrustworthy, greedy, slovenly bunch—but this couldn’t be further from the truth, especially in today’s modern market. Today’s landlords, far from the one-note villain of “La Boheme” and “RENT,” are instead generally well-educated individuals with at least one degree, and family men and women at that. In addition, a recent survey of PRS landlords found that just over 7 in 10 of them were married, with just over a third living in London or the South East of the country.
2. There is at least one element of truth to that old Dickensian idea—namely, the disparity in wealth. Simply put, landlords tend to be far wealthier than their tenant counterparts and given just how lucrative today’s housing market is, that’s not terribly difficult to understand. Just how big is this disparity? Big—the average landlord makes £20,500, as opposed to a rough average of just under £400 for tenants.
3. There’s also a definite age gap when it comes to landlords and their tenants, although this is increasingly showing itself to be a curiously symbiotic rather than problematic one. Landlords, on average, tend to be closer to middle aged more than anything else, while one of the top demographics by far looking to become tenants right now are college students. How does this pay off for both? On the one hand, allowing college students to rent can really help them develop as adults, and they and their parents are generally good for the money. This money, in turn, is good for the industry, as evidenced by the recent boom. What does all of this mean, in the end? Landlords need that younger set in order to have a chance at making these recent gains sustainable, and students need these housing units in order to live that “La Boheme” lifestyle.
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But who are the landlords in this brave new renting world?
Let’s take a look.
1. To begin with, what do you think of when you think of a landlord? Unless you thrill to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and immediately think of his landlady, Mrs. Hudson, chances are many out there have an almost Dickensian view of landlords as a sort of untrustworthy, greedy, slovenly bunch—but this couldn’t be further from the truth, especially in today’s modern market. Today’s landlords, far from the one-note villain of “La Boheme” and “RENT,” are instead generally well-educated individuals with at least one degree, and family men and women at that. In addition, a recent survey of PRS landlords found that just over 7 in 10 of them were married, with just over a third living in London or the South East of the country.
2. There is at least one element of truth to that old Dickensian idea—namely, the disparity in wealth. Simply put, landlords tend to be far wealthier than their tenant counterparts and given just how lucrative today’s housing market is, that’s not terribly difficult to understand. Just how big is this disparity? Big—the average landlord makes £20,500, as opposed to a rough average of just under £400 for tenants.
3. There’s also a definite age gap when it comes to landlords and their tenants, although this is increasingly showing itself to be a curiously symbiotic rather than problematic one. Landlords, on average, tend to be closer to middle aged more than anything else, while one of the top demographics by far looking to become tenants right now are college students. How does this pay off for both? On the one hand, allowing college students to rent can really help them develop as adults, and they and their parents are generally good for the money. This money, in turn, is good for the industry, as evidenced by the recent boom. What does all of this mean, in the end? Landlords need that younger set in order to have a chance at making these recent gains sustainable, and students need these housing units in order to live that “La Boheme” lifestyle.
Onlet's website