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Higher mortgage rates driving more landlords to request rent guarantors

guarantors

Landlords hit by mortgage rate hikes are demanding guarantors from increasing numbers of high earning tenants.

Many tenants are seeing a greater proportion of their take-home pay go towards rent so are having to provide the additional security of a guarantor when signing new agreements.

It's a trend which Goodlord expects to continue throughout the rest of 2023, as rental prices are predicted to peak over the summer months.

Goodlord's analysis of more than 220,000 tenancies reveals a steady increase in requests for renters who earn between �25,000 and �74,999 to provide a guarantor, up from 3.7% in 2020, to an average of 5.8%, an increase of 58%.

Surprisingly

Perhaps more surprisingly, there has also been a big jump in those earning between �50,000 and �74,999 being asked to provide guarantors, despite salaries in this range being far higher than the national average. In 2020, this was true of just 1.3% of earners in this bracket and is now 2.5%, a 92% increase.

Oli Sherlock, director of insurance at Goodlord, says the supply and demand problem means rents are rising at a time when tenants have less disposable income thanks to the cost-of-living crisis.

Obligations

He adds: 'This means more tenants are being asked to show they have the support in place to meet their rental obligations, should they need it. As well as a rise in the number of tenants who find themselves needing to provide a guarantor, we've also seen a big increase in landlords taking out rental insurance.

'It's a far from ideal situation for either tenants or landlords. The government should see this as an additional sign that more support for the rental market is urgently needed.'�

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