With renters in widespread areas dealing with intense competitors for houses, many are more and more discovering themselves pitted towards one another in bidding wars.

Housing campaigners have welcomed plans for brand new legal guidelines to ban the apply in England – however are warning extra motion will likely be wanted to deal with unaffordable rents.

Jason Phillips had been residing in his flat in Crouch Finish, north London, for 10 years when his landlady determined to promote up.

He spent greater than a yr in search of someplace new to hire within the space. However regardless of going to round 40 viewings and having a great wage as a enterprise analyst, he stored dropping out to different candidates.

In a single case he was instructed a two-bed flat available on the market for £1,800 month had gone for £2,500, after somebody provided £700 over the asking worth.

“It is irritating,” he says. “It made it not solely unaffordable for me, but when I might recognized that was going to be the worth vary I in all probability would not have even gone to see it within the first place.”

With at the least a dozen potential tenants viewing among the properties, Jason stated a number of property brokers had actively inspired him to bid greater than the marketed worth to offer him one of the best likelihood.

Finally Jason, 60, gave up and reluctantly moved to Stevenage, Hertfordshire, the place it was simpler to seek out someplace inside his funds and he was nearer to work.

“I might bought to know my neighbours and I might construct up plenty of pals,” he says. “I miss [Crouch End] and I’d love to return.”

The federal government has set out plans to finish bidding wars as a part of a wider Renters’ Rights Invoice, which was published on Wednesday.

Beneath the laws, which nonetheless must be authorized by MPs and friends, landlords and letting brokers could be legally required to publish an asking hire for his or her property and banned from encouraging or accepting any bids above this worth.

This goes additional than proposals Labour set out when it was in opposition, which might have prevented landlords and brokers from encouraging bids however would nonetheless have allowed potential tenants to supply greater than the marketed hire.

Marketing campaign group Technology Hire’s Conor O’Shea says they’re happy the federal government has listened to the proof from nations like Australia, the place laws has already been launched to deal with bidding wars, and selected a “whole ban”.

He argues permitting “voluntary” bids would have been “open to abuse”, as tenants should still really feel pressurised to supply above the asking worth.

In Australia, all states now limit rental bidding in some type – however solely Queensland and the Northern Territory have banned landlords and brokers from accepting affords above the asking worth utterly.

Three years after first introducing laws to ban the encouraging of bids, Victoria can also be planning to go additional and make it an offence to simply accept rental bids, because the UK authorities is proposing.

The federal government there says with emptiness charges at file lows potential tenants are beneath “an unimaginable quantity of stress” and individuals are more and more making “unsolicited bids” to offer them an edge over different candidates.

Joel Dignam, government director of Australian marketing campaign group Higher Renting, says this means banning landlords from accepting in addition to simply encouraging bids is important to cease bidding wars.

He says enforcement can also be a problem.

Typically, landlords or brokers breaking the foundations might be fined, however Mr Dignam says it’s extra possible they solely get “a slap on the wrist”.

Mr O’Shea says that is additionally an issue within the UK, the place overstretched councils battle to go in spite of everything landlords who break the foundations.

Beneath the deliberate laws, landlords or brokers might be fined as much as £7,000 in the event that they encourage or settle for bids.

However Mr O’Shea says any new legal guidelines should be correctly enforced to be efficient.

He argues tenants also needs to be incentivised to report when bidding is being inspired, for instance they might be given a rebate on their hire if their landlord is discovered to have damaged the regulation.

There are additionally questions over how efficient banning rental bidding might be in curbing rising rents, with campaigners saying this doesn’t deal with the basis explanation for the difficulty.

In Australia, rents have continued to extend in widespread areas, the place demand outstrips provide.

However Mr Dignam argues banning the apply is not only about affordability but in addition transparency.

“I believe what’s tough for renters is simply not realizing what the actual worth of the property is,” he says.

“Is it even price going to this [viewing] if truly it is out of my worth vary?”

Within the UK, the Nationwide Residential Landlords Affiliation (NRLA) additionally agrees with the precept of ending bidding wars, saying neither landlords nor brokers needs to be encouraging tenants to supply above the asking hire.

Nonetheless, it’s calling for extra element on how the coverage would work in apply.

Extra broadly, the NRLA says there must be motion to spice up the availability of privately rented houses.

Mr O’Shea says in the end banning bidding wars is “not going to be the silver bullet that can cope with the affordability disaster for tenants”.

He says there are considerations that some landlords might merely checklist their property at an inflated worth and settle for decrease affords if wanted.

Technology Hire additionally needs to see tighter controls on how a lot landlords can enhance rents by inside tenancies and a rise within the provide of houses, he provides.

“We do not have sufficient houses within the locations that folks wish to stay, at charges they will afford to hire.”