Several countries are experiencing a housing affordability crisis of some kind. I recently visited Madrid, where people protesting unaffordable housing recently formed a 300-tent encampment in a central square to force through changes to government policy. After the government failed to pass new laws, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for next month.
In the UK and elsewhere, average house prices are stubbornly expensive – whether one looks at how average house prices compare to median income or at mortgage payments as a percentage of median monthly income.
So-called “affordable” homes often aren’t that affordable. And with high interest rates and reduced job security, getting a mortgage and paying it off can be daunting – or completely out of reach.
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Broadly speaking, my parents’ generation built wealth on the idea that you live in a home you own, make tough but affordable mortgage payments for 20-25 years, and expect the value of that home to increase (in real terms) over time. In the final 10 years of your career, you hope to work in more senior roles and have lower housing and childcare costs, enabling you to boost your retirement savings.
But in many cases, these ideas no longer apply. My peers struggle to get on the property ladder and are understandably frustrated at missing the boat. Finding a place to rent often involves tough trade offs: central and sociable but expensive? Cramped and poor quality but affordable? Costs saved on rent spent on a long commute to work? And work is changing too: there are no guarantees of drifting up the organisational hierarchy in a stable job.
In this context, we start to look for villains.
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Landlords (and ladies) invite skepticism. Taking advantage of limited supply to demand astronomical levels of rent. Treating houses – something quite sacred; someone’s home – as a good to be sold to the highest bidder. Allowing tenants to suffer poor living conditions by minimising the time and money they invest in maintenance.
There are real issues with exploitative landlords who abuse the power they have over their tenants. Ownership of rental properties by investment companies (currently 15% in the UK) could depersonalise the process and risk tenants’ interests being overlooked in favour of profits.*
But renting out property is not inherently evil.
People rent their property out for so many different reasons, beyond simply buying to let. Perhaps they have downsized and rent the place they vacated. Perhaps they rent to a family member to provide security and predictability to them. Perhaps they’re out of the country and rent their sole property rather than selling (I do this).
And many people stand to benefit from a healthy supply of well-maintained rental properties. Where the supply of rental properties is limited, people seeking to rent struggle to find properties that fit their budget and needs.
By contrast, a healthy rental market suits people who choose rental over home ownership for financial, practical, or lifestyle reasons. So, let’s be wary of promoting the ideal of “every household should own one home: the one they live in” and disincentivising property rental to the degree that renters suffer from lack of supply.
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To conclude: affordable housing is a complicated problem, requiring a package of – often highly localised – policy solutions. Vilifying landlords and introducing blanket bans on owning a second home won’t solve affordability issues and seems likely to cause other problems.
Well-designed laws protecting renter’s rights could help. Reducing the attractiveness of housing as a financial asset could help. In some areas, closing loopholes that enable the super rich to buy up housing outside their home country could help. Boosting the supply of housing via YIMBYism, planning reform, and increasing the number of skilled construction workers via training and immigration could help. Normalising remote work and strategic government investment in less popular locations could help.
Anger at exploitative landlords is righteous; anger at the concept of a landlord isn’t.
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*Source: the English Private Landlords Survey report, 2024. Accessed: 5th October 2026. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-private-landlord-survey-2024-main-report/english-private-landlord-survey-2024-main-report/
Disclaimers: I’m a landlord. I used AI to assist with factchecking this article prior to publishing.