The UK’s population of tenants feel the country’s property rental market is ruthless and unethical, new research by online estate agent LetBritain has revealed. The independent, nationally representative study among over 2,000 UK adults uncovered mass negative sentiment from tenants towards the current property rental system in the UK.
With around 4.3 million rented households across the UK, a huge number of people are evidently disillusioned by the rigmarole of securing a property through high street estate agent. In total, 40% of renters said they think the process of securing a rental property is ruthless and unethical, enabling people to gazump other prospective tenants with unscrupulous practices.
Moreover, well over a third, 37%, of renters feel they have been misled by an estate agent regarding the competition they faced from other interested parties and this practice was even more common in London, with 61% of tenants in the capital stating that they have been misled by their estate agent about rival renters. What’s more, 38% of respondents believe their estate agent knowingly advertised phantom properties to them online that were not actually available on the market.
Almost a third, 31%, of renters also stated their estate agent prioritised preferred relationships with other prospective tenants, making the waiting list an unfair system. Consequently, almost two fifths, 37%, of tenants in the UK think that the current rental system is not fit for purpose in light of the demand and speed of the market and this rises to 50% among Londoners.
Fareed Nabir, founder and chief executive officer of LetBritain, said: ‘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.’
