Tenants in Britain last month were hit by the highest increase in rents for any November in at least a decade.
Rents on new tenancies rose 10.2% year-on-year, according to the estate agent Hamptons, which is the strongest growth recorded in any November since its records began in 2014.
This increase means people paid a record £85bn in rent this year, Hamptons estimates.
Its latest monthly lettings index shows that the total rent bill has doubled since 2010, when tenants stumped up just over £40bn, as high house prices and mortgage costs made it harder for younger adults to buy a home.
The increase over the last 13 years is driven by a 25% increase in the number of households renting, as well as the rise in rents, Hamptons says.
Some of it is not greed, but trickle down trussonomics.
Many landlords have found themselves with a massive increase of mortgage payments since last year when the buy-to-let interest rates jumped from 1-2% to 5-6% and beyond. Many of those mortgages are still on the lower rate, but will have to move to a higher rate in the next 3-4 years. Brace, brace.
We could send them tiny violins and tell them to suck it up as investments can go down as well as up, but the reality is what we see in the article above. Hand on heart, how many of us would pay through our noses if we could get someone else to do it for us?