TPP326: Are rental prices out of control?

This week on The Property Podcast, The Robs are talking economics and looking at data to see whether rental prices really are out of control.

It’s certainly an episode worth listening to because we’ve got something exciting coming up...

Yes, we’re going to be those people who tease you about something coming up next week and make you wait a whole 7 days to see what it is - sorry! What we can tell you though is that it’s very exciting and it’s exclusively for you - our podcast listeners. So whether you listen to The Property Podcast regularly or you’re only a few episodes in. Make sure you tune in next week when we reveal all!

In recent headlines, it’s been said that renting is unaffordable, and action is needed. Maybe even rent controls. But is this true?

Zoopla has recently brought out a really interesting report. They’ve taken their own rental data, compared it with average wages and looked at the period between 2007 and 2018 to see how affordability and rent levels have changed over that period.

The conclusions are actually quite surprising, so The Robs dig right in on today’s episode.

The three main topics Rob & Rob discuss today are:

• The raw rentals
• Rents compared to earnings
• Regional breakdown

So tune into this week’s episode as Rob & Rob see whether renting really is unaffordable. Give the Zoopla report a read and let us know what you think.

And in this week’s Hub Extra, Rob D is recommending something he uses regularly. It’s a meditation app called Waking Up, developed by a guy named Sam Harris. Sam is a neuroscientist, philosopher, author, podcaster and an all-around interesting guy.

This app is a series of guided meditation and lessons - which isn’t dissimilar to other apps, but for Rob D, it’s Sam’s approach that has been the gamechanger. So if you’ve been struggling to make meditation stick or can’t seem to get into it, give this one a try and see if it helps.

And in the news this week, The Robs are loving the headlines from The Daily Express. The one which caught their attention is ‘Corbyn’s garden tax: ‘DISASTROUS’ for property market and will hit families and pensioners’.

Rob D voices a bit of an unpopular opinion on this. But both of The Robs don’t think it’s half as bad as the media are making out. Essentially it’s just a rebranding of council tax. In fact it might make things fairer!

However it was also announced that Labour are proposing that landlords pay tenants’ council tax bills. Needless to say, this sparked a bit of a heated debate, especially over on our Instagram.

We’d love to hear what you think of this week’s Property Podcast over on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. You might even have a topic you’d like us to cover in the future - if so, pop us a message on social and we’ll see what we can do.

Make sure you’ve liked and subscribed to our brand new YouTube channel where we upload new content every week!

If that wasn’t enough, you can also join our friendly property community on the Property Hub forum.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.