Renting: Bidding wars driving up prices for tenants

Would you pay more than the asking price to rent a flat with mushrooms growing out of the bathroom walls?

That was the situation Chris Sayers found himself in when he was hunting for a place to live in London.

He’d gone to view the apartment, in a “brand new, high-rise complex”, and the letting agent asked him how much rent he wanted to offer.

“And it was like, well, whatever’s on the advert,” says Chris.

“And they said: ‘Oh, well, we’ve already had higher than that. So if you want to be taken seriously, you are going to have to do more.”

Chris says the agent told him that he’d have to stump up at least £100 a month more than the advertised rent to be in with a chance of securing the property.

Once he was inside, Chris noticed problems: “I have a photo where there were actual mushrooms growing out of the grouting in the bathroom,” he says.

That wasn’t the end of it.

“Our apartment got a rat infestation,” says Chris. “And at all hours of the day you could hear rats scurrying around in the walls.”

Chris, originally from Wales, had never heard of bidding wars before moving to London, but was involved in two when looking for a place to rent in the capital.

It’s nothing new for people buying a property, but more and more private renters like Chris are finding themselves in battles to outbid rival tenants.

A survey by charity Shelter found more than half a million private renters in England missed out on a place in the last five years because someone else offered more money.

The market is very competitive – according to figures from Rightmove for the BBC, letting agents get about 25 requests to see each available property.

Before the pandemic, it was six.

Campaigners blame this demand for fuelling bidding wars and driving up prices. In Bristol, which has some of the highest rents outside the capital, community group Acorn has spent the last year attempting to get agents to sign a pledge against allowing the practice.

Chair Laura Stone says: “We’ve had people tell us they’ve had to take out payday loans to pay a number of months rent up front, just so they can secure the property.

“People are moving further and further out of the city because they just can’t afford to live in the areas that they grew up in. It’s having a huge effect on people’s livelihoods and futures here.”

Laura says many tenants are too scared to speak up.

“I think they’re terrified of not being able to find suitable homes in the future,” she says.

“For renters, obviously your home is never permanent, so you never know when you’re going…