Housing: Waiting lists spiral in Bristol as rents become increasingly unaffordable
“For every property we put on, we tend to find about 60 leads overnight.”
Adil Ayub has been an estate agent in Bristol for more than 20 years. We meet him and his colleagues as they open shop in St Werburgh’s, in the northeast of the city.
If they advertise a property in the evening, the work is essentially done by the morning: “By the time we get in at 9am, we’re already getting the phone calls and the leads we need to catch up with.”
The problem is so bad, not all properties are advertised online. Adil has a waiting list of hundreds of people, desperate to find somewhere to live in a city that’s becoming increasingly unaffordable.
The council here says Bristol is now the most expensive city to rent in outside of London.
Many of the reasons are the same as elsewhere in the UK – a chronic housing shortage, rising costs being passed on to tenants and many landlords simply selling up as buy-to-let becomes unprofitable, squeezing rental housing stock even further.
But Adil says the attractiveness of Bristol to outsiders is also a driving problem.
Read more:
Half of renters ‘only one paycheque away’ from potentially losing home
Adil Ayub says the waiting list for properties is huge
“In Bristol, the guys that I class as born and bred Bristolians are having to effectively move out of the city where the rents are getting so expensive,” he said.
“In Bristol, we do have the dynamic employers and we’ve been awarded many accolades as a city, so it’s a fantastic place to actually be.
“Now we are getting talent from outside of Bristol which, often if you look at their average salaries, it is a lot higher than the guys here, so that’s one of the challenges we are finding for people – it’s very competitive at the moment.”
We join Adil’s brother, Uz, on a house viewing two streets down from the office.
We meet Ricardo Retamales and Chelcie Brewer-Retamales and their four-month-old son.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Bristol renters face frenzied competition
The couple left Bristol a few years ago and moved to Newport, South Wales, because property was cheaper. With a new baby, they’re trying to move back to Bristol to be nearer to family.
Ricardo says finding somewhere is challenging: “We call agencies all the time, we’re scouring Rightmove and any time we call there’s genuinely no viewings available, or the property has gone before we even get a chance to look at it.
“That, coupled with the quality of property that isn’t that great either, so we are kind of in a tough place right now.”
Read more:
Homeowners and renters at risk of eviction to receive free legal advice
The three-bed house they’re viewing is on the market for £2,100 per month.
“Right now, it’s one of our salaries going purely on rental. That’s not including bills or nursery when the time comes – so half of our household income is going on that,” Ricardo says.
The couple’s search comes as the Office for National Statistics says private rental prices rose by 5.5% in the 12 months to August 2023.
There has been a sharp and continuous uptick in rental costs since the end of 2021.
London has had the highest annual percentage change, with the North East and South West following.
Bristol City Council wants to try to tackle the problem – and has asked the government for new powers so it can introduce a rental cap; a limit on how much landlords can increase rents.
Read more:
Record number in temporary accommodation, government reveals
Average asking rental price hits record highs
“There needs to be an intervention,” Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees tells me.
“The way the housing market is going at the moment is not working for ordinary people. We have a situation in which hospitals and schools – vital employees – are struggling to recruit and retain staff, it’s a city that is becoming increasingly unaffordable to live in.”
He adds: “Fundamentally you’re looking at some kind of controls over the rate of increase in rents that people are paying… it has to be part of a national approach to housing.
“In Bristol wages over the past decade have gone up 24%, rents have gone up 52%. You cannot sustain that kind of situation.”
As I walk around the streets of St Werburgh’s there are thousands of homes – but I count fewer than three to-let signs – a sign of the market, and the real struggle people are facing in this city.
A 15-year-old boy has died after “getting into difficulty” in a lake in southeast London, police say.
Officers and paramedics were called shortly after 3pm on Friday to Beckenham Place Park in Lewisham.
The Metropolitan Police said a boy “was recovered from the lake” at around 10.42pm the same day.
“He was taken to hospital where he was sadly pronounced dead. His death is being treated as unexpected but not believed to be suspicious,” according to the force.
The boy’s family has been told and are being supported by specialist officers.
The force originally said the child was 16 years old, but has since confirmed his age as 15.
In the earlier statement, officers said emergency services carried out a search and the park was evacuated.
Emergency teams were called to Beckenham Place Park on Friday afternoon
Beckenham Place Park, which borders the London borough of Bromley, covers around 240 acres, according to the park’s website.
The lake is described as 285 metres long, reaching depths of up to 3.5 metres.
It is designed as a swimming lake for open-water swimming and paddle boarding.
A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said on Friday: “We were called at 3.02pm this afternoon to reports of a person in the water.
“We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, an incident response officer and members of our hazardous area response team.”
Emergency teams have not explained how the boy entered the water, or whether he was accompanied by others.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway