Rent rises in Margate one of the highest in country as demand outstrips supply

Margate Photo John Horton

By Dan Thompson

Margate has seen one of the highest rises in rent in the country over the last year, a new study of the UK’s private rental market has found.

While Swansea in south Wales has topped the table with a 19.7% annual rise, Margate rents have increased by 18.8%, well above the national average rise of 10.8%.

The report, by property website Rightmove, found that demand for rental property is exceeding supply. The number of prospective tenants is more than three times higher than the number of properties available. It identified that people hoping to buy are spending longer in rented accommodation, and that a number of tenants are now signing longer leases meaning less property comes onto the market.

A number of other factors have also been identified, including people choosing to relocate and change their lifestyle after the pandemic. In 2021, 60% of London’s renters said they were considering a move to the seaside.

In Margate, as well as people relocating to the seaside, the increase of second homes and holiday lets like Airbnb is also a factor. Last year, housing union ACORN Margate organised protests after finding 300 properties listed on Airbnb, but only 15 rentals.

Buy-to-let landlords have also either increased rents or left the market because of tax changes, with a ‘fairer tax’ imposed on their profits from buy-to-let property from 2020, and new legislation meaning landlords will be expected to make their homes more energy efficient.

MPs from the Public Accounts Committee this week released a report that found that 13% of privately rented homes in England had at least one serious threat to health and safety, that landlords are legally obliged to address. The report also identified 52% of landlords refusing to let to those in receipt of housing benefit.

“Unsafe conditions, overcrowding, harassment, discrimination and dodgy evictions are still a huge issue in the private rented sector,” said the committee’s chair Meg Hillier MP.

The latest annual Halifax Seaside Town Review also lists Margate as experiencing the greatest 10-year rise in property prices, up 98% to £282,734.

The review also tracks 5 year price rises between 2016 and 2021 with Ramsgate seeing a 41% hike in average house price from £204,367 to £288,330 while the 5 year rise for Margate was 40% with the average house price of 201,474 rising to £282,734.

82 Comments

    • Read the recent CPRE report taken in Canterbury tells the story nationally. Years of Tory Government incompetence.

      • Nothing to do with either party directly. Look to the side and wonder why there is such a demand. Market Forces in play and Labour would only make it worse with unfettered immigration.

        • This all stems back to Thatcher and her “right to buy” scheme. This simultaneously removed vast amounts of publically controlled housing, and prevented local authorities from building more. This resulted in the current situation.
          As for Labour and immigration: before Brexit (opposed by Labour), under the Dublin Convention, immigrants could be returned to the Europen country from whence they came; since Brexit (supported by the Tories), that is no longer possible.

          • Working people aren’t top of the list where labours concerned . Their main preoccupations are allegedly fighting racism highlighting the world’s human right to come and live hear and working out what a woman actually is

  1. Shortage of accommodation, I wonder why? Supply and demand but why is the demand continually increasing?
    Answer on a postage stamp.

    • This all stems back to Thatcher and her “right to buy” scheme. This simultaneously removed vast amounts of publically controlled housing, and prevented local authorities from building more. This resulted in the current situation.
      As for Labour and immigration: before Brexit (opposed by Labour), under the Dublin Convention, immigrants could be returned to the Europen country from whence they came; since Brexit (supported by the Tories), that is no longer possible.

      • Under the Dublin convention weren’t there more immigrants sent back to us than what we were able to get rid of? Or is that fake news? I never know what to believe anymore.

        In regards to property, do you know its not just a UK problem? UK planning system has a lot to answer for too. Developers sitting on large land banks doesn’t help, but not all of it is speculation.

        I hold shares in Henry Boot and in 2021 they held 88,000 plots of land!

  2. Hmm everytime anyone wants to build any housing of any kind in Thanet, there is a huge campaign against it, whilst the same hypocritical nimbys cry over a long since failed airport.

    Fact is there need to be more houses, people are trying to build them are prevented from doing so by the same people who are complaining about lack of housing.

    That’s Thanet for you sadly.

    • Space in this country is not finite . We need green space. More and more housing outs pressure on a crumbling infrastructure roads surgeries schools etc . In addition the ecology / environment is destroyed as well. Those that advocate an open door policy on migrants and rush down to the beach to welcome refuges seem oblivious to the fact that more and more people lead to more co2 emissions . You can’t have your cake and eat it. Our population needs to gradually decline if we are to reduce climate change and make the country sustainable.

  3. It is not surprising landlords to not want to rent to those in receipt of benefits when there is a high risk of tenants not paying as they will clearly prioritise food, heating etc. It should go back to years ago when rent was paid directly to the landlord. I often wonder if our politicians (regardless of party) who vote on these decisions have any common sense or idea of the real world! I have been renting out an flat since 1992 and have been fortunate having had an excellent tenant for the past 11 years. But should he leave, I would never consider a person on benefits.

    • I agree . I’ve had two single very young mums in benefits . One came from a quite middle class background and her mum stood as guarantor. Went ok for about a year then missed rent and silence .Agents contacted the mum and she didn’t want to know . I met her prior to problems and she never spoke to me and looked at me like I was a price of dog poo. Both young ladies sneaked in boyfriends fathers who probably didn’t want any responsibility and happy to advise someone’s house and both parties prepared to defraud benefits dept. Why would anyone want dealings with such people. According to Meg Hellier these poor downtrodden young women are harrased and abused by landlords. In many cases it’s anything but. They just want a free ride with society picking up the bill.

  4. Why are we building so many new properties for sale,my son and wife both work claim no benefits so get no help yet have to pay £1100 a month for rent,also pays £500 for child care which is not free for under 3 years old, how are these people supposed to get a mortgage to buy housing. They should be building for rentals, but of course no instant profit for builders

    • Because, for decades, governments of every stripe have pushed the line that only poor, inadequate people rent. All the talk is if getting on the “housing ladder”. QE’re urged to take out huge mortgages, putting us in shock for 25 years.
      In most of the rest of Eurpoe, renting houses and flats is a perfectly ordinary thing to do. There is no social stigma attached.
      We have so little local authority rental housing because of Thatcher’s dreadful right to buy scheme.
      If it was so good, why did it only apply to LA housing, and not private landlords?

    • There is actually more build to rent developments now than in previous 10 years. But dont expect cheaper rent.

    • Absolutely. Housing is not finite. There is a housing crisis . The green agenda is making situation worse. What’s labours answer allow anyone from anywhere to settle hear. The left predictably will call me racist for having the audacity to say this. The Labour party are masters at pinning nasty labels on people who don’t share their internationalist outlook. Their membership is almost entirely middle class . They claim the moral high ground on everything and dismiss and ridicule contrary opinion. They are quite Stalinist in they why they try to gag and silence opponents . They are truely a a nasty party

  5. I don’t understand why there is still a social stigma. We definitely need much more social housing.

    Of course, until a few decades ago, renting was perfectly normal and there was plenty of council housing.

      • Stigma about areas develops for a reason. Areas with a bad reputation are usually those areas where people just don’t care about their immediate environment . People need to take ownership and responsibility to tidy up. Years back even in poor areas people had pride and tried their best to make what little they had look reasonable. To some extent if people live in a hovel it’s partly choice. There needs to be collective responsibility as well. A lot can be achieved with very little or no money . Unfortunately we live in s Blane culture . Ones situation is viewed largely as someone else’s fault . If an institution can be blamed so much the better. The default cop out is the Tories are in power. Most of it is self inflicted inertia .

        • I largely agree, but living in a shabby area doesn’t help. A good example are the coastal shelters: in Minnis Bay and Birchington they’re being lovingly restored by volunteers, but in Margate/Cliftonville they’re either shabby, boarded up or turned into “art” spaces. Ditto dirty and unswept streets.

          • Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh . I would have thought a few people even in Clifton ville west would like their environment to look nicer. Council bin collectors have a terrible problem . No one can be bothered to recycle . Many could not care less about their environment. Unfortunately for some life is free if your prepared to live on subsistence. No one’s expecting anything from you and Labour party activists will champion your right to do nothing .

        • Too many in cliftonville ( though currently that number may be reducing) have no interest in much other than what they can get for nothing and have no interest in others. It’s been a dumping ground for those that no one really wants to live next to for years and they’ve shapednthe area in their own image. The influx of arty types and the dfls are changing the mix and in time a bit of gentrification will change the area. The antisocial and irresponsible being forced out to plague other areas instead.

  6. In 2002 the council would pay £450pcm for a 2 bed flat for someone in receceipt of benefits, inflation alone would take that to £690 pcm today. Add on the never ending changes to regulation and taxation and you get the rents you do today. The regs and taxation have also encouraged the short let markets (air bnb etc) which along with the trend for second homes has meant a slow decline in private rentals that are available. So the rules of supply and demand kick in and prices increase.
    You also have to take into account the thanet was for decades kents poor relation and historically very cheap, that differential is now reducing.
    If the proposed energy efficiency regulaltions come into being it’ll get way worse. A large proportion of thanets rented stock is older converted property, bringing those up to an EPC C is possible but expensive and the lala land of heatpumps magnitudes dearer again. A landlord would expect to recoup costs over around 7 years, so even spending the proposed improvement “cap” figure of £10,000 would mean rent rises of £30 a week minimum , but then the “cap” only gives an exemption for 5 years before the landlord is expected to spend again, so you might as well say £50 a week to recoup the £10,000 in 5 years.
    The “fairer tax” in the article effectively taxes landlords on turnover and not profit , an unheard of concept in the business world and another reason rents have increased and supply reduced.
    Marva, social housing has its stigma from the change to “needs based allocation” in the 70’s when effectively social housing was only given to lifes least fortunate, this filled estates with often dysfunctional and disparate families ( and later many new arrivals to the uk) so there was no traditional sense of community and values , so over time we ended up with the sink estates and the “council house” tag.
    The nation has insufficient wealthvto build social housing to the levels most would like especially at the rents the same people would think fair. Where would we cut back on state spending to provide the average of say £250,000 a unit to provide homes for refugees (as in many cases that’s where new homes would be allocated) whose rent will be paid by the state to a greater or lesser extent. Then you’d have the hue and cry of homeowners subsidising people to live in brand new energy efficient homes whilst they face £10,000 plus bills foisted on them in pursuit of net zero.
    Lastly thanet has a huge influx of the creatives who earn little and want cheap housing ( i see it everytime i put a property up for rent) they are often quite transient and as such not the best tenants ( a chamge of tenant is my most expensive outlay) and so avoided if at all possible. I and most other landlords want stable longterm tenants, who landlords can generally avoid increasing rents to prohibitively during the course of a successful tenancy.
    The article is little more than clickbait fluff.

    • I think the stigma came from the Thatcher government’s unrelenting push towards privatization of housing. it’s the same thing you see on comments here regarding public transport as well, and springing from the same root, ie Thatcher’s attitude towards public transport users.

        • I, of course, think that several people posting comments on IoTN “think a lot of odd things.”

          • But many others try to create an argument for their views , you just make “i think” statements with no explanation/argumemt and as such are little more than pointless political parroting.

    • I’m looking for a 3 bed to rent long term I get it paid straight to the landlord due to mental health but I keep an excellent home and never in debt with rent cancle tax I pay yearly as its one kes hill for the year coming in that’s wot helps cover yourself for rainy days

  7. I take issue with the report produced by Labour MP Meg Hillier and chums. She and her party like to demonise landlords in general . They foster the assumption that all landlords are rich exploiters . In fact many come from blue collar occupations . What Labour seems to really hate is working class people having the audacity to try and better themselves and start a business. I’ve spent £25k in recent years on one of my properties . I actually look after my tenants and don’t hyke rents at every opportunity . Increasing regulation and unrealistic expectations on how energy efficient an Edwardian property can be is leading many to sell. Many tenants locally are being given notice. Meg Hillier and indeed the Tories are fully aware they are creating homelessness. They cynically attract landlords and use us as a lightning conductor for their policies. Labour despite its pretentions is a middle class party and doesn’t give a hoot for the working class .

    • Tories Labour and Greens are creating a mammoth housing crisis of epic proportion . I think people who think Labour ‘ cares ‘ are naive . Meg Hillier …. Private school educated what does she know about life. People attack BJ cos he went to Eton same applies to her in my book. Out of touch cynical and above all superior .

  8. It’s going to get a lot worse if they scrap section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.
    Landlords don’t go through a lengthy eviction process on a whim, there’s always a reason.

  9. I have no idea who Ian Ellard is (probably a relation of Scrooge and Gradgrind, he certainly sounds like it),but I never heard a lot of tosh in all my life.
    He seems to be a throw back of Baldwin’s hard faced men of the interwar years, full of spite for the ‘undeserving poor’, and full of excuses about the activities of the unloved private landlord.
    Point number 1:The Tories in one form or another have been in power for 12 years. Labour made mistakes and did not address these problems, but they are not the cause.The Greens have never been in power.
    Point 2 Since 1980 we have lost 1.5m social homes and Housing benefit has increased 4 fold to over 30BN, paid to private landlords.
    Point 3 We have returned to the Victorian era of rack rent properties and rising rents,with the poor being marginalised.You may not like the the evidence of Ms Hillier’s Cttee but it is based on fact not wishful thinking.

    Finally, I would remind you that the present Govt is run by Old Etonians and the privately educated, as is the civil service.It is a fact of life in unequal Britain.The more unequal we become the more unhappy we become.Unequal countries are unhappy ones.
    You should overcome your misogny and bigotry, read around the subject more and empathsize more with those fortunate than you.

    • Use your google skills to see how much housing benefit goes to the social sector. Then take into account the other grants and subsidies social housing receives , take into account the private sector pays and determine which offers best value for money. You might also take into account satisfaction surveys of private and social tenants.

    • Amusing. Clearly you have never been engaged in any form of commercial activity and imagine society can be some sort of neo socialist wonderland. Like it or not most of us have to get out of bed and work to support those that either can’t or more often won’t. For your information I’m far from the greedy depression era capitalist you seem to have fantasies about. I’m registered disabled and have chronic heath problems. I made use of a tiny inheritance to build up a business . What have you done ? Your fail to realise that private landlords provide the most housing in this country. Council / housing association second. How many council houses has the wonderful Labour party built while in power very view. The highest number built in one year was 1957 in Macmillan’s time. I could sell all my properties and have a modest retirement . If evey other ps landlord did the same in the next few years millions would be on the street. Council’s would be overwhelmed . Lastly Labour is so obsessed by the human right of everyone and his dog to live in this county the indigenous population would be bottom of the pile. What a wonderful breading ground for the far right . Many small properties may come on to the market but who would they be sold too middle class professionals working people bottom of the pile as usual. I do know several paid up members of the Labour party who are landlords . There Corbyn fanatics . It may surprise you they want top dollar for their properties and don’t have the courage to deal with their tenants face to face whereas I do. Their socialist hypocracy never ceases to amaze me. Before you criticise perhaps really try to understand what your taking about.

  10. The UK is the 5th richest country in the world so there is sufficient wealth.If what you mean by the ‘Green agenda’refers to insulation,on shore wind, and solar,then I am signed up to it.
    If we were not spending £30 billion on housing benefit we might be building social homes.As for the sink estates claim, that was a lab experiment on rats that got miss applied into social science, and for that we can blame those on the left who should have known better.
    What really happened was that was a race to build more and more houses and short cuts were made using system built housing and poor design.In the 1970’s when money became tight, maintenance was skimped and housing conditions started to deteriorate and some estates became difficult to let, and misused as dumping grounds for the dysfunctional. Had a firm grip been taken and a modicum of money injected,the estates could have been turned around, as they were when some were sold to the private sector.
    Finally can we stop all this Mad Nad stuff about WOKE.It is not an issue and in any case, the morals and etiquette of society changes with time.In 50 years what is called WOKE will be mainstream or ignored.Look how far we have come with ideas about sex, LGBT, the position of women in society, and racism in the last 50 years.Some of course refuse to change and it is they who rant about the WOKE, most of us shrug and move on,trying in our fumbling British way, not to offend.

    • Or you could have charged sufficient rent to maintain social housing properly which would have saved the tax payer over 40 billion for the decent homes standard.
      Where will the money to make social housing energy efficient come from?

    • I’m all for the green agenda just opposed to the green party and it’s elitist middle class membership. It has influence and is in power in Scotland with the SNP. Yes we need to make older homes more energy efficient. Plain fact is that most people can’t afford heat pumps nor can they tare their home apart in order to install internal cladding etc. Greens scare people. We need a mass green movement that ordinary people can identify with not one led by an ex private school girl . Her party can’t even get the bins collected in Brighton. We need environmentalists that connect to the masses not just those who can throw away £20 on a heat pump that dissent work .

        • Caroline Lucas and the Greens aren’t for ordinary people flying to Spain . They are any car even electric ones. Yes I’m sure they do scare ordinary people because they appear to want to take things away and price out things people do.

          • Yes. Things like the gross over-use of private cars. They want people to use far less polluting forms of transport instead. And they’re right to want that.

          • She’s a self important big mouth for sure who believe her and her friends have a monopoly in caring for the environment.

          • Personally I’m indifferent to page three however the Puritanical left are doing what Mary Whitehouse used to do. There seeking to impose censorship and control . They are two sides of the same coin. Claire Short famously removed girly mags from one unfortunate news agent in a media stunt. Short and Lucas would not be out of place in Cromwell’s puritan English Republic of the 17th century .

        • Greens want as to live in nice little eco hubs and cycle. Unfortunately we can’t de invent the car . Greens against electric cars. In short against working people who may be carers and have to drive an older vehicle. Greens promote a society for the middle class that’s all.

  11. None of the parties give a monkeys about the people of this country they are to busy lining there own pockets, on the boards of big companies, like everyone else their only interested on profit. Welcome to rip off Britain.

    • True. 17 Labour MPs out of 201 are land lords . One at least lives in a council flat on her £88k minimum salary. Socialism seems to be a very fluid and flexible philosophy. It’s not do as I do it’s do as I day. Hypocracy really.

  12. The housing problem is ultimately not immigration or Airbnb owners, please stop blaming the individuals and the little guys. The problem is the system of capitalism which sees housing solely as a profit-making enterprise and leads to policy decisions such as austerity. Whilst market forces and population growth are challenges, there are other economic systems more socially just and less exploitative of people/property as well as the environment, than capitalism. Sadly our political leaders and their donors (we live in a country driven by crony capitalism, Google it), don’t profit from social justice.

  13. Britain isnt community based country anymore. Thatcher saw to that she wanted a me me society which we have.

    People in big Cities couldnt believe their luck when they could buy the council house for peanuts. Wait a few years and make a massive profit. Than more to the countryside or seaside where people living could put up their prices. These ex council house owners now think they are middle class and have forgot their roots. They dont want house built never them etc.

    Its happen all over the country ex council property house owners have made a killing and pushed up prices all over England.

    Didnt I hear that the Tories are thinking of scrapping the afford housing now in new builds

    All the time these council properties were being sold off but not replaced, a tory plan. Than the Tories supporting large landowners and large landlords company’s could make big profits by selling land or high rents.

    • As ever a half baked notion regarding your comment about the suggestion ending the requirement for a percentage of builds to be affordable, the idea is that instead developers pay a levy directly to the local council who then use the money as they feel best helps the area. This would prevent developers doing deals with councilsmoutside the areas they build in.
      So for example instead of developers ar westwood cross selling their affordable housing percentage to london boroughs (and so doing nothing to help thanets housing availability) they would instead pay a fee directly to TDC who could then do their own developments and prioritise locals on the housing list.
      But its only a bit of kite flying at the moment.

        • I wouldn’t trust TDC to do anything. But government policy doesn’t revolve around 1 council. The idea floated was to give local councils direct control over the contributions from developments in their area. Which you would hope would mean that locals needs are better addressed than just mandating a % of homes in developments over which there may be little local control.

    • Yep didn’t help,rents in the areas covered, purely a money making exercise that achieved very little in practice. So little in fact that the council hasn’t published a report since 2015 on the schemes effectiveness. Perhaps there should have been a similar sceme for the councils own housing to ensure the gas and electrical checks were in order.

  14. Homes, not Assets: “There is a clear disconnect between the housing market and the rest of the economy. The truth is that house prices are skyrocketing because decades of policies have transformed homes into vehicles for accumulating wealth.”
    “the private rental sector has doubled in size since the 2000s and accommodates 4.4 million households today. The proportion of income spent on rent has risen from around 10 percent in 1980 to 32 percent in England and 42 percent in London in 2020, making our rents among the highest in Europe.” https://tribunemag.co.uk/2022/04/housing-market-house-prices-inflation-investment-mortgages-cost-of-living

    • Wikipedia: “Tribune is a democratic socialist political magazine… with columns from high-profile socialist politicians such as former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, former Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Pablo Iglesias and former Bolivian President Evo Morales.”

      No bias there then?

    • So that’s an additional 2.2 million homes available for rent then? Surely a cause for celebration ? Or would that only be the case if it had been purely the result of those toting red rossettes? How much social housing was created in the same period?

  15. Who is this Dan Thompson, is he an accredited reporter?. This article is a a copy from another source but is newsworthy enough to get into the Isle of Thanet News!

  16. There appears to be substantial house building in Thanet, but I suspect many DFLs will snub such crappy new builds in favour of a character home unaffordable in Chiswick, say. This means these paper thin heat boxes will typically go to high earning millennials with no taste for all things ornate, although happy to wipe COVID stained moisture off their triple glazing ad infinitum.

    I sincerely hope property prices actually double, reducing the temptation of the broke and lazy to settle here thus reducing pressure on our overstretched amenities.

  17. There was a report a couple of years back which drew attention to the dire prospects of private sector tenants approaching retirement with next to no pension out of the OAP : fortunately the Local Plan recognises the problem as being particularly acute in Thanet
    and is concentrating what newbuild we need (and repurposing e g the SAGA site) on ‘social rent’ only (I think. perhaps misguidedly ?) And of course giving priority to the well above average number of ’empties’ as well as formulating an AirBnB policy. Should be plenty of work for the smaller tradesmen hereabouts insofar as they haven’t already been driven out of business.

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