The authors point out how the landscape of many UK cities as been transformed in recent times as they have become dominated by large, modern blocks of flats that have been built by developers responding to the housing shortage. Whilst such developments have provided people with homes, the authors warn that these changes also have implications for renters and potential homeowners - increasing rents and bigger wealth inequality that pushes the promise of home ownership further out of reach.
Build-to-rent properties undoubtedly meet an urgent need: in a context of dwindling housing supplies and high inflation, there are many young people without the means to save for a deposit or buy a house. But it also transfers the capital gains that they would have enjoyed as homeowners to corporate landlords, often located outside the UK
Jon Silver, Richard Goulding and Adam Leaver, TuOS