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Grainger, the Stock Market listed corporate landlord, has been targeted by protesters over rent levels.
A protest outside Grainger’s London HQ marks the start of what the London Renters Union calls its ‘Cut The Rent’ campaign.
Grainger PLC owns and manages more than 10,000 properties across the country, with a further 5,000 in the pipeline. It has a portfolio allegedly valued at £3.3 billion.
Grainger has positioned itself as offering a solution to the housing crisis by creating new properties in the Build To Rent sector.
London Renters Union claims the corporate landlord mostly offers luxury flats in London that are “on average more than 20% higher than local rents and which local residents cannot afford.”
The union is also angry at Grainger’s alleged lobbying of government against elements of the Renters Reform Bill and because it has built on sites previously occupied by council housing tenants.
And the LRU wants rent controls over Grainger and all other private rental properties.
A spokesperson for the union says: “I was forced out of my home in Seven Sisters in 2022 when my partner and I were given a 51% rent increase. Our landlord justified this rise by citing the new Grainger block across the road as ‘the market rate’.
“This was a hugely distressing time for us, giving us little notice to try and find another home. We are now spending around half of our wages on housing costs. Over the last five years, I’ve built a home in Tottenham.
“If Grainger and other corporate landlords are allowed to continue ripping apart our communities like this, I will no longer be able to afford to live in the place where I work.”
At the end of last week Grainger figures given to shareholders showed an 11 per cent growth in its net rental income from £48m to £53.2m in the six months to April.
Meanwhile the firm’s total rental growth in the half year to 31 March was eight per cent, up from 6.8 per cent in the six months prior.
This rental growth and the expansion of its pipeline led to the firm rewarding shareholders with an increased dividend for the 17th time in a row.
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Its about time … now thats the real enemy and its only going to get worse , a lot worse
In a few years when the prs is replaced by a wall of faceless corporate unaccountable bureaucrats , the so called activists will realise they’ve been well and truly played all along
Divide and conquer , the oldest trick in the book , and it’s still so effective
It's a classic tactic, perfected in 1930's Germany. Pit 2 parts of the community against each other, sit back while they fight it out and then come up with the "answers". In our case, certain powers that be have stoked the fight and made tenants hate landlords. The reality is that landlords and tenants are on the same side and should be fighting together against the powers that be. Don't hold your breath though, there are too many stupid people out there.
Ronald Reagan had it right:
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
The penny is finally dropping they are a bit slow, the big boys will have it all by the time they come out of their deep sleep.
Grainger is around a long time they had scouts even buying one off run down
House’s bidding against me at Auction.
I soon realised that I was up against someone with deep pockets but now you can see the big name shareholders that have joined them in more recent years.
It’s where the Big Boys seen their opportunity to all move-in independently as well as the ones they holding shares in Grainger. Which is the why they want us out of the way with one sided Regulations.
Very true Michael, but has the penny dropped at all for the Labour party.
Well, protesting is better than working l imagine.
Is this a case of being careful what you wish for?
Weren't corporates supposed to professionalise the industry?
Wasn't treating housing in a more professional way supposed to be so much better for tenants?
Had the fact that tenants are unique individuals with individual quirks, not some homogeneous lump escaped everyone?
Just as the fact small scale landlords were normal human beings from every walk of life and far better positioned to accommodate those individuals seems to have been regarded as a bad thing.
There's room for all styles of landlords in the country. Maybe activists should start campaigning for the small scale ones to be treated fairly and allow us to get on with doing what we do so much more appropriately than the corporates ever will. At least a third of my tenants wouldn't meet the criteria of a faceless corporate landlord and the other two thirds would have a severally compromised standard of living if they suddenly had to pay twice as much rent for a room in our local co-living block.
Spot on Jo! BTR is being trumped as the saviour of the rental market, removing all those pesky small LLs. In reality, their 'units' (not homes) will be expensive as the companies have shareholders to report to, with extra layers of profit required at every level. Plus, the threat of rent controls will stop future investment. No doubt future renters will be lamenting the good old days of the private LL!
It amuses me that the Corporates call it “Co-living”. It is an HMO and probably a very expensive one.
Poor thing cannot live where he works. 😢 Do many people live where they work? We lived in one town and my father worked in another thirty minutes car drive away. I lived in North London and worked in central London. It is what WORKING people do.
I've never understood the economics of living too far from the workplace, especially for people on a low income or short shifts. Several of my colleagues drive over 20 miles to get to work for a 6 hour shift that pays £16.50 an hour. By the time they have paid tax, NI and pension contribution or had their UC reduced by 55p in the £ how does paying out to run a car make sense? At 45p per mile that's £18 a day out of net pay just to get to and from work.
Personally I won't apply for a job that is more than 5 miles from my house.
The vast majority of my tenants live in the houses they live in because they are very convenient for their workplace or university.
The protesters are in a losing battle with the Corporates. Once the corporates have a monopoly they will call the shots not the government. Generation Rent and the like will cease to exist. There will only be small bug hutches to live in. And where are the social housing tenants going to live?!
So really the answer is for the smaller L/L to sell up and buy shares in Grainger, after all their dividends are going up and I can guarantee that no government will go after the big corporates as they have far too much to lose.
BTR = tomorrow’s slums at extortionate rents. Corps can’t do it any other way.
So this begs the question-who is going to let to tenants on benefits? The taxpayer will end up having to subsidise extortionate rents as nowhere enough social housing being built and the small landlords driven out the market.
The same thing happened with small care homes and now the remaining ones unaffordable for Councils to place people in. This is why the NHS now have a problem with releasing older frail people from hospital.
That's an interesting point, especially as it is entirely possible to be both a Higher Rate tax payer and a Universal Credit recipient simultaneously. All it takes is a couple of children in the household. LHA is still nowhere close to the 30th percentile. On a 3 bed it's about £400 a month light. On BTR it would be a much bigger gap.
This just made my day. I can't really add to any of the above comments other than to think, yup, karma
And STILL these protesting fools don’t realise that they should be protesting against tax and regulation, short supply, and govt policy. Rents are rocketing because govt wanted it that way. I don’t blame Grainger in any way for taking advantage, although I do hope the protestors aren’t going to keep yelling about how big corporates are better landlords?!
They can buy mine they are welcome to them
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