Wales Up for Rent Week In Week Out

Wales is facing a housing crisis,

with more and more people being forced to rent.

In our window display, I would hazard to guess

that at least 80% of those properties were rented last week.

Demand is high and so are the rents, pushing some out of their homes.

He's applied for us to be evicted, as well as the rent arrears.

If I don't laugh, I'm going to cry, really, so that's where I am.

We follow Sallie and her young family as they face becoming homeless,

and visit the other residents of a street that's seen

the ebb and flow of the housing market.

Paying the rent, it is really hard. The youngsters don't stand a chance.

Dramatic change to the way we live is coming to a street near you.

I don't think everyone understands quite how serious this could become.

This is Tintern Street in Cardiff, a typical terraced street

you could find anywhere in Wales, from Bangor to Barry.

On the face of it, nothing much has changed here for years.

The post is still delivered, the kids still go to school,

people go about their daily routine much as they've always done.

But the stories behind these doors tell a different tale,

because Tintern Street is at the front of a housing revolution

that's going to affect every community in Wales.

Some people have lived here all their lives.

Some are new owners but don't live here.

And there are young families moving in with hopes

and dreams for the future.

Come on then, Master Morse.

Sallie Morse and her family are one of them.

The street, out the way and cute, really. Everyone's friendly.

Canton's a nice place to live.

Sallie moved here after the breakdown of her relationship.

Ideally, she'd have bought a house but she's had to rent.

To me, I think it's dead money anyway.

I think, for anyone to rent, it's quite soul destroying

if there's a chance of them being able to buy.

But it's impossible.

Sallie's got two children to provide for.

The cost of renting this house is stretching her financially.

It started off 750 a month.

Basically, it's rent and not much food.

That's what really is the case.

Plus the fact, with my job, I do care support work

and I need petrol money and that's a big, big problem.

But I'm not prepared to give my job up.

Everything's based from your home.

Like they say, home is where your heart is.

And I haven't got one, nor have my children. It's just so sad, really.

Sad for them, cos it's the last thing I wanted for my children,

to not have a home, a family home.

They are the best, honestly.

Sallie agreed to let us film her over six months.

At the other end of the street, and the housing market,

is landlord Colin Emery.

I bought this house in Tintern Street,

probably three and a half years ago.

It needed fully restoring, the place was an absolute dump.

So we came in, had a quick survey around, made an offer,

it was accepted,

and we've had the current tenants in now who are absolutely fantastic.

Colin's a builder by trade

but like an increasing number of people in Wales,

he became a landlord unintentionally.

We had an option of buying a property on Cowbridge Road. There was a flat

upstairs and it went for 25 grand which was cheap, even them days.

That was the first one we bought.

Once you've got one, you tend to get the inkling to get another in.

So you sort of save a bit of money from the rent you're getting in

and you buy the next one and next one and it snowballs on.

He's now got 20 properties he rents out, and over the eight years

he's been a landlord, Colin's noticed a number of changes.

When we first started renting,

it was single people who were renting the properties.

Now it's families,

more and more families are taking the properties off us.

We're looking to get more

two and three-bed properties on board

just because there's people after them.

The days of every Tintern Street resident owning their own home

are long gone.

Nowadays, about a third of households rent their homes,

which is a huge change for a community that 20 years ago

would've been almost entirely owner-occupier.

OK, I think this property is about average monthly rent

across Wales, £625 a month.

'Another empty house awaiting tenants.

'Is it just Tintern Street or is everyone renting now?'

Each year, the statistics coming out from the Welsh Government,

owner-occupation's gone up again a little bit,

everything else has stayed roughly the same.

That's shifted massively.

When we look forward from now, there are predictions saying

by 2020, we're looking at possibly an average of 20% of households

renting in the private rented sector.

That's an average across Wales,

so for different areas you could be looking at more than that.

Cardiff, I think, probably already is around 20%.

On this street, I understand there's already

a third of houses in this street that are rented privately.

A third of the houses in Tintern Street are rented out.

That trend is heading for a street near you.

In 1997, just 7% of households rented.

That figure increased steadily over the next ten years,

but then renting shot up.

By 2011, 14% of households were renting,

and by the end of this decade, that figure is heading for 25%.

So that is a quarter of all households living in a rented house.

Here in Cardiff, that figure is set to be even higher.

The Morse family moved into a rented house in Tintern Street

after a relationship breakdown.

The rent is crippling them.

Last Christmas was the time I thought this is ridiculous,

I cannot carry on having hardly any food in the house.

Constantly feeling sick cos I didn't have any money.

Quite often I'd wait till the Monday morning, get my child benefit

and go up to the school and take my son's lunch up

because I didn't have anything on the Sunday.

That's happened quite a few times.

They think he's probably forgotten his lunch, but that's not the case.

Sallie's fallen behind with her rent.

The landlord lowered it to £700, but even though she's working,

she still can't afford it.

I have a court case on the 31st,

to see about how I can repay my debt to the landlord.

So, how much do you owe the landlord?

We're talking about 3,000.

Are you expecting that

you and the children will be evicted from the house?

We are going to, definitely. Definitely.

He's applied for us to be evicted, as well as the rent arrears.

It doesn't get much more serious than losing your home

and renting means less security, so why are so many choosing to rent?

Well, there's one major reason,

the collapse of a once booming housing market.

House prices in Wales increased for decades but, hey, so did our wages.

We should've woken up and smelt the coffee in the mid-'90s.

House prices went up and up,

on average from 58,000 to 170,000 in just ten years.

Meanwhile, our pay didn't and house prices have stayed out of reach.

-Come on in. Come and have a look.

-Lovely and warm.

'Jackie's showing me round a house in Tintern Street that's for sale.'

You can really tell that this house is well loved, can't you?

Yes, it's been very well loved.

I did suggest she could rent it out and she'd get a good rent for it,

but she said it'd break her heart if anybody damaged it.

It's been a labour of love.

I've got a lot more rentals now than I ever had

because that's the way the market has gone.

I think we've probably encouraged that market a lot more than

we would've before.

Ten years ago, we wouldn't have thought of talking you

out of selling your house - suicide.

But once we went into rentals

there's two coins now, we play both cos we can't lose.

Who's walking through your doors these days to buy houses?

Well, believe it or not, I've got a lot of first-time and second-time buyers

desperate to find a property, but I haven't got the properties

because, unfortunately, a lot of people,

because of what's going on, are sitting tight.

They're thinking, "We'll ride the storm, we'll build an extension,

"put a dormer on,

"do whatever we've got to do to make life comfortable."

So I have the buyers, don't have the stock.

And how financially are people managing to buy houses?

Bank Of Mummy And Daddy.

A few doors down, the latest house move on Tintern Street

is a classic example.

We basically had help

and most of the people I know of my age

that, again, have good jobs, you know,

they earn not a fortune, but they earn plenty of money.

If you don't have some support and mostly family support

from somewhere, I think it's really, really difficult for people to move.

Bethan and her family are moving from Tintern Street

to somewhere larger.

This was their first family home and they've sold it

to another young couple.

# It's just a little street

# Where old friends meet... #

-How long have you lived here, then?

-65 years.

-Have you?

Now, you'd think Tintern Street would be the perfect place

to settle a family.

It's tucked away in a traditionally working-class part of Cardiff

and over it's hundred years of history,

scores of children have called it home.

Some of them are still here.

This is me and my cousin Sheila.

This one's about my grandfather, who was a runner.

He was captain of the Cardiff Harriers.

He moved in in 1914, and my family have lived in the street ever since.

So I'm the last survivor,

and our family have lived in the street for 96 years.

I've taken over the longest now.

I've only been here 65 years.

A youngster.

The Tintern Street of today is adorned with For Rent

and For Sale signs.

But dig a bit deeper and you're in for a bit of a surprise.

In the days that Graham was growing up here,

most of the families on Tintern Street didn't own their own homes.

They rented them.

The houses were rented years ago.

I mean, my mother used to pay rent to a landlord...

..for several years, and the rents in those days,

I think the last time we paid rent, it was £1.50 a week.

# Come on to my house, my house

# I'm going to give you candy... #

Time to go visiting in Tintern Street.

A few doors down from Graham, Doreen and Hazel share some memories

of the good old days of renting.

-So this is Tintern Street, then.

-Yes.

-How long have you lived here for, then?

-52 years.

-52 years?

-Yes.

Hello.

The first thing to go up on the dresser would be the rent

with the rent book.

-Yes, you can remember him. Tall. Mr Thomas.

-Can you?

-Yeah.

You knew what time he would be here,

and you'd only have to look out the street

and you'd see him go from one house to the other.

Until it came to your turn.

And then he'd carry on again and back up the other side.

Renting's back in fashion in Tintern Street, but it's expensive.

Sallie's rent costs £700, and that's reduced.

With eviction looming, she needs to find somewhere cheaper.

That one's 750. This one's 775.

But the local letting agent's window offers slim pickings.

This is the same street I live in.

And it's 750 again.

So...that's a definite no-no.

-It's really the price that's the problem.

-OK.

Because I've got two children

-and I would like three bedrooms initially.

-Mm-hm.

But they all start at 700 upwards and I need somewhere cheaper.

-What is your budget, then?

-Would be 600 max.

-£600 maximum?

It's highly unlikely that we'll get anything like a three-bedroom house

for 600, unfortunately.

-Just to manage your expectations.

-Yeah, OK.

Letting agent Adrian's been set a tough task.

Find a house or a flat that Sallie can afford that's available

-anywhere in Cardiff.

-So if you are looking at curbing your expenses...

In our window display here, I would hazard to guess

that at least 80% of those properties were rented last week.

For every property that comes onto the market,

we would ideally be able to line up probably six viewings

within one day, within a slot.

And on that day, that property would rent.

I do feel that it's a lot to ask for a mum of two

to expect the two children, ages between ten and 15, to share a bedroom

but that is the way in which the private market

is pushing tenants like Sallie.

With a quarter of households likely to be renting by 2025,

landlords like Colin are busy.

Every time a property comes up for sale, he's ready to check it out.

Always interested in a deal,

depending on what the property's going for.

We prefer to find them where they need a bit of work doing,

because obviously, like we said before, we are builders

as well as landlords. There's a property for sale

sort of behind me, it looks like it could do with some work,

so I might be having a little look round later, a little mooch round

on the internet and see what it's actually on the market for.

His property portfolio is his pension,

and many of us have been buying houses as savings for a rainy day.

But with the trend towards renting,

more of us won't have any sort of nest egg to pass on.

So what does all that add up to?

We've got very used to thinking of home as investment

as well as home as somewhere to live.

If you look at the debates around social care,

if you look at the debates around how people pay

to support their youngsters going to university,

there is an expectation that you draw equity out of your home.

If we see a big increase in those renting rather than those owning,

those debates around how things are paid for by individuals

will need to shift in recognition of that.

First floor, as mentioned. So please be careful going up the steps.

A former businesswoman and homeowner,

Sallie's now house-hunting on a budget.

It's a really nice size living area.

Letting agent Adrian's managed to find a three-bedroom flat

that Sallie might be able to rent.

I quite like where it's situated.

But it's small, this is.

But it's still above her £600 budget.

And on the way back to the letting office,

there's another, bigger problem.

He'll go to your previous landlord and one of the questions is,

"Has Sallie ever been in arrears?"

And immediately...

Sallie has to declare she owes her landlord over £3,000.

It doesn't make her a desirable tenant.

Especially if you've put in all the work that she has...

'High rents mean more and more families struggle financially.

'Estate agent Jackie says high rents mean potential house-buyers

'are getting trapped.'

The trouble is, you pay your £700-a-month rent.

How can you save a deposit?

It's the catch-22 situation.

But it is very hard if you're in rental and you can't save

and you can't even exist, because you can't not pay your rent,

because the landlord will get you out and then where can you go?

If you can't pay the rent,

you're then blacklisted, exactly the same as if you get repossessed.

Renting in places like Tintern Street used to be affordable.

What about today?

There's a general consensus that in order to be affordable,

housing costs, whether that be mortgage or rent,

shouldn't be more than 25% of a gross income.

If you're on average income, you're already over that...

that affordability definition, if you like,

of 25% of your gross household income.

If you're on a lower wage again,

then obviously you're moving up from a third, possibly up to 40%

of your gross monthly income.

Is this just a problem in Cardiff, the capital city?

No, because in areas, for instance Heads Of The Valleys areas

such as Merthyr and Blaenau Gwent,

where the rents are lower, people's incomes are lower as well.

It's December.

Today Sallie's in court facing eviction,

because of her missed rent.

Her plans to go to college and start up her own business

have been shelved. She feels she's hit rock bottom.

It is an embarrassment to be evicted.

Well, I feel embarrassed, anyway.

Obviously, the landlords are losing money

and that is their livelihood, so I do feel bad about it.

I suppose there are some people

that have no respect for the landlords but...

..I did.

But the case is adjourned once more without resolution for Sallie

or her landlord.

I'm in the same position. In limbo yet again. Oh, I don't know.

If I don't laugh, I'm going to cry really. So that's where I am.

Sorry.

Sallie knows she's going to be evicted from her home,

it's just a matter of when.

But that's not her only problem.

She owes her landlord at least £3,000 in unpaid rent

and she's likely to be blacklisted

so renting privately is no longer an option.

What she really needs is a council house.

Finding one of those these days is a tough job.

In 1981, there were almost 300,000 council homes in Wales.

Today, there is just 88,000.

In Cardiff alone,

10,000 people have put their name on the waiting list for a council home.

It sounds a bit crazy but I didn't expect people to be nice to me.

I was expecting them to be, you know...

Sallie has to be considered homeless before she'll qualify for a council house.

I've just got to wait for this letter now

to see if they've accepted my application of homelessness.

They vet the interview and...

if they think that you haven't made yourself intentionally homeless...

-Well, you haven't, have you?

-I know but they don't know that.

They have to do their job.

Welsh councils simply can't house all those who apply for help

so those on the waiting lists,

along with all the frustrated first-time buyers,

are competing for homes to rent.

The private rented sector is not going to address

all the underlying problems behind the housing crisis.

We simply don't have enough homes.

To meet demand, Wales needs to build

over 280,000 new homes in the next 15 years.

So is that feasible?

Well, last year, only 5,000 new homes were built.

To meet the demand it should've been 14,000.

It looks like more of us are going to have to rent houses for a bit longer.

But if renting was good enough in the good old days,

what is the problem with it now?

What has changed is security of tenure.

40 years ago, private rented tenants knew that as long as they kept paying the rent

they were protected by the law.

They could effectively rent the same property for as long as they wanted.

Today the rules have changed

and it is now landlords who have the right to take their properties back,

whether the tenants want to stay or not.

Most tenants will tell you they want more rights

but will landlords be happy about that?

These days, Colin Emery isn't just fixing up old properties,

he's building new homes for rent as well.

We're not earning loads of money.

The money we make on the rent is covered in the mortgage we have to pay.

'He's in it for the long-term,

'so how would he feel if his tenants got better protection?'

If somebody wanted a six-year tenancy agreement with us,

it would be beneficial to us

because then we've got fixed income on that property

for the next six years.

And we don't have to worry about them going in a month's time

and us having to advertise to fill the property again.

It would certainly benefit families like Sallie's if tenants had more security.

The Welsh government is looking at this

and the man in the hotseat is Huw Lewis.

A lot of families out there would shy away from the private rented sector

because they perceive it to be insecure.

We need to shift that perception and that reality

to a much more continental-style attitude

where people will be quite relaxed about the idea that, well,

"Privately renting may be an option for me over the next decade or so while my kids are at school."

Why not?

Are we looking at four-year tenancy agreements or...

Am I being a tad too optimistic?

I think it would be a mistake for me to sit here and pontificate on that level of detail actually.

It is very important we get it right and we get it right first time.

We need that consultation.

No diktat from me on the length of tenure at the moment.

In fact, the Housing Act planned for next year will not be changing tenancy law.

It was seen as too complicated and will be looked at separately.

So for now the rules stay the same.

Landlords can evict tenants whenever they want.

It is the end of January.

Sallie has been accepted as homeless

and the council has found her a house.

-Hi, Sal.

-Hi. You know the housing association?

-They just offered me a place round the corner.

-Don't lie. Oh, my God!

That is amazing!

When can you move?

Well, the lady wants me to go and view it but I'll wait

till the court finishes and see what time...

Maybe I can go Wednesday, something like that.

Let me know and I'll come with you. Definitely.

When I move, what did I promise you? That you could sleep over, didn't I?

-Yeah?

-Not the cat.

-I don't mind, you can bring the cat if you want.

-He's freezing. I can feel him shaking.

-OK, shall we take him indoors then?

-Yeah.

The next day, Sallie gets to see her new house.

-It's too small.

-It does go bigger.

But it is not the end of her search for a secure home.

This house is just temporary accommodation.

It's leased for the council by a housing association from a private landlord.

-Where do you want this one, Sallie?

-That can all go in there.

Back in Tintern Street, day-to-day life goes on.

But, with almost a third already renting, some can't help but worry

about the cost the next generations will pay to live here.

You've got to have a roof over your head, whichever way you look at it.

I'm glad I'm not going through it again.

Having that kind of mortgage or even paying the rent. It is really hard.

I mean, jobs as they are, the youngsters don't stand a chance.

And what about the rest of us in Wales?

I think the overall message

is that for households on a low income

there are very, very few housing options.

And with tough times ahead, those in charge admit

they can't offer any easy answers to the Welsh housing crisis.

The size of the problems that face us

are not on everyone's radar at the moment.

I don't think everyone understands quite how serious this could become.

Pressures upon people in the coming period

over the next two, three, four years are only going to grow.

The pressure on the sector is going to grow.

The whole question of affordability is going to be

at the forefront of the minds of hundreds of thousands of families up and down Wales.

We're moving to react to that.

Sallie is packing up at Tintern Street.

She's lost this house

but is determined to try and make a new home for her and her children.

It's a bit strange. Some good memories, some bad memories,

but hopefully we'll be going to have better ones in the future.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd