Good morning. Too many people and not enough properties has meant that, for years, those living in urban centres have forked out extortionate amounts on rent. This New York Times piece from 2006 highlights the brutal obstacle course endured by would-be tenants who were in some cases expected to earn $80,000-$90,000 to rent a $2,000-a-month studio apartment. Eight years later, the Guardian ran a piece highlighting the growing gulf between London and the rest of the country (at that point, average London rent was £1,516 a month.)
Those examples now seem quaint; according to Rightmove the average rent across all property types in London was £2,343 a month between July and September this year, with prospective tenants now going through a rigmarole of endless, pressurised viewings, interviews and background checks. Finding a home now brings together the worst parts of dating and applying for a job. Except that at the end of it you don’t get a bump in salary or the love of your life, but instead strangers for room mates and, potentially, a mould problem, all for a third to half of your paycheque. Robert Booth wrote a brilliant, humanising piece on the people at the sharp end of this crisis, speaking to three tenants who are facing evictions after their landlords unexpectedly raised rent.
But the UK is not alone in facing this issue. From Asia to the US, today’s newsletter looks at the global rental crisis, and the measures being taken to combat it.
Five big stories
Politics | Labour has easily held the City of Chester in a byelection, winning by a majority of 10,974 in a brutal first electoral test for Rishi Sunak. Samantha Dixon, the newly elected MP, said in her victory speech early on Friday: “Tonight the people of Chester have sent a clear message. They have said Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives no longer have a mandate to govern.”
China | Chinese authorities have ramped up censorship tactics over zero-Covid protests that have been taking place across the country. Leaked directives show that the government has initiated the highest “emergency” response level, including tracking and questioning protesters and cracking down on VPNs and other methods of bypassing online censorship.
Education | Department for Education figures show the number of graduates in teacher training is at “catastrophic” levels. Around 29,000 graduates have signed up, a 20% drop on last year – and the government is missing its own recruitment targets by more than 80% in key subjects.
Health | Stanford University researchers have found that the brains of teenagers who lived through the Covid pandemic are showing signs of premature ageing, with the group self-reporting more severe symptoms of anxiety, depression and other mental health problems.
Royals | Netflix released a trailer for its forthcoming documentary series on the story of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s relationship, featuring new interviews with Harry and Meghan. The teaser dropped as Buckingham Palace grapples with the aftermath of a racism incident.
In depth: Four cities that tell the story of a broken housing market
Nearly a third of private renters have experienced rent hikes in the last three months in the UK, according to the charity Shelter. (Robert Booth and Michael Goodier’s exclusive on rent increases analyses, in sobering detail, just how bad things have become across the country).
Combined with increasing energy bills and rising inflation, radical action is needed to make sure people do not end up without basic necessities like housing. Below are four global cities grappling with how to deal with their own rental crises.
London
The cost of renting a property is increasing extraordinarily quickly in the UK capital; according to data from estate agent Savills, in the first nine months of this year rent price hikes broke records, increasing by 13.7%. While this is partly down to overseas students and young people returning to the city in high numbers, the central issue remains that there are not enough housing units and there have not been for a long time.
After the pandemic downturn in 2020, an increase in property prices, and rising capital gains tax, many landlords decided to sell their buy-to-let properties and cash in. This, paired with the fact that the Tories have failed in fulfilling their manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year, has led to a massive property shortage. And that means bidding wars, huge deposits and properties being snatched up before they are even listed on websites.
This problem has been decades in the making – social housing has been dwindling meaning that most people who rent are relying on private landlords. While prices have cooled slightly since the unprecedented levels witnessed over the summer, Savills has predicted that the average London rent will jump another 5.5% next year. The housing and homelessness minister has said that no-fault evictions would be banned under the new renters reform bill – but that might not come into effect until late 2024. But as campaign groups sound the alarm that this rental crisis could lead to a homelessness crisis, it is clear that time is of the essence. The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has said that he wants to freeze rents for two years and for his office to have devolved long-term rent control powers.
New York
The global rental squeeze is also apparent in New York, as of yesterday the most expensive city in the world. The median rental price has gone up by 20% in the last year, with evictions and homelessness on the rise.
Videos of New Yorkers queueing around the block to view potential apartments went viral over the summer, and the story seems to be the same as that in the UK: too many people, not enough places. The population of New York City hit 8.8 million this year, a number that the Department of City Planning did not think it would hit until 2030. Over half a million flats need to be built in the next decade to accommodate for this growth.
New York as a city has oscillated between protecting tenants’ rights and curtailing them in favour of real estate investment. Over the course of several years, many regulations that were designed to stabilise and control rent were weakened, giving landlords avenues to increase rents as they saw fit. For instance, landlords were still limited to annual rent increases for renewing leases, but if the tenant left then the rent increases were under their discretion. Deregulation and a housing shortage has led to a perennially full city falling apart at the seams.
Hong Kong
Before New York, Hong Kong had the dubious honour of being the most costly city in which to live. While average salaries are quite high in the city, eye-watering rents, alongside a crackdown on human rights, have led to something of an exodus, with the city’s population dropping from 7.41 million in mid-2021 to 7.29 million in mid-2022. House prices have soared by 165% in the last decade, and massive inequality has meant that locals applying for public housing are waiting for an average of 6.1 years. More than 200,000 people live in “subdivided” units, which amount to four by six feet spaces infamously labelled “coffin homes”.
The problem in Hong Kong is not necessarily a lack of housing altogether, but a lack of affordable housing. For those on low or middle incomes, buying a home is all but out of the question (one estimate showed that for someone on a median income it would take 23 years to be able to afford a median-priced apartment– and that’s if they spend none of their salary). Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, has, somewhat limply, pledged to build 30,000 larger, cheaper transitional homes in the next five years and to cap the wait time for public housing to six years. Alone, these initiatives barely make a dent, but they have been announced alongside longstanding policies that aim to house two-and-a-half million people on undeveloped land. It’s unclear how long these projects will take because of their massive environmental and legal implications.
Berlin
Germany’s capital has been hailed as an ideal example of an affordable and secure rental market, as its dual approach of rent control and sufficient public housing has meant that rent has stayed relatively low over the decades when compared with other European cities. However, the city has not been entirely insulated from the global housing crisis, and while Berlin might not have been starting from the same point as London or Paris, increases in rent are outpacing salaries in the city. In the decade between 2009 and 2019 rents doubled, and they are still increasing. Berlin is also a city of renters – roughly 85% of the city’s residents rent their homes, meaning that far more people are affected by this squeeze than elsewhere.
It was perhaps this fact that led to a striking referendum last year, where 56.4% voted to transfer ownership of hundreds of thousands of properties from corporate landlords to the government for social housing. However, one year on, Berliners are still waiting for this to happen.
What else we’ve been reading
This picture essay by Gary Calton is an arresting and devastating look at Somalia’s humanitarian crisis, as the country grapples with conflict and famine. Nimo
A few people in France would have woken up very confused yesterday morning, when they turned to the back pages and saw that Tunisia had beaten the champions in the World Cup. It seems French TV switched to the ads after a stoppage-time equaliser for Les Bleus, only to miss the rather essential fact that it was ruled out by the video referee – so the game ended 1-0. And I thought ITV was bad …
Toby Moses, head of newslettersNadia Khomami spoke to children’s author Michael Rosen, who spent 48 days in intensive care after contracting Covid-19 two years ago. Rosen had a 50/50 chance of survival and was put into an induced coma for over a month - since then he has been telling the world about his gratitude to the nurses who kept him company and helped save his life. Nimo
Emine Saner brings together 11 impressive yet affordable recipes by top chefs, from simple but decadent mushrooms on toast to a delicious-sounding chickpea and chorizo stew by Monika Linton. Toby
Veronica Esposito spoke to the artists who have taken the spotlight at this year’s Art Basel Miami and used this moment to centre queerness in a state pushing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. Nimo
World Cup
Japan’s stunning performance led them to a shock win against Spain, 2-1, and sent Germany crashing out of the tournament altogether, despite beating Costa Rica 4-2. Belgium were also knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage after drawing 0-0 with Croatia, prompting Roberto Martínez’s departure as Belgium’s coach after six years in charge of the team. Martínez has said his exit was always part of the plan, “I didn’t resign, this is the end of my contract”. Morocco’s 2-1 victory against Canada made them the first African country top a World Cup group since 1998.
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The front pages
The Guardian has an exclusive on NHS plans for a strike on 20 December. Elsewhere, the new Netflix documentary from Harry and Meghan gets a few mentions: “Royal crisis deepens”, says the Mirror, “Kiss means war”, says the Sun, “Harry, do you really hate your family so much?” says the Express. The Mail calls the film a “declaration of war” on the front but its main story is “‘Bonkers’ Covid plan to release prisoners”. The Times goes with calls to avert a transport strike (“Halt strikes with festive truce, rail union urged”), while the Telegraph says a law preventing universities from cancelling controversial speakers has been watered down. The i reports on Royal Mail’s pre-Christmas parcel mountain, and the FT has “Blackstone caps outflows from $125bn property fund”.
Something for the weekend
Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now
TV
The Traitors (BBC One)
Twenty-two people are taken to an isolated spot in Scotland to complete a series of tasks for a prize of up to £120,000 – except that three are secretly designated, by host Claudia Winkleman, “traitors”. It is terrible – a pandering to our basest, most voyeuristic instincts – and you’re going to love it. Lucy Mangan
Music
Vince Guaraldi Trio: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Super Deluxe Edition
Vince Guaraldi’s career, or rather the legacy of his career, is a curious thing. This is one of the bestselling jazz albums of all time, but you suspect the problem for historians is that it was the soundtrack to a children’s cartoon. Then again, once a year, his star burns brighter than any of his peers. A low-key masterpiece.
Alexis Petridis
Film
White Noise
Noah Baumbach’s terrifically stylish movie, adapted by him from the 1985 novel by Don DeLillo and starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig (above), is a deadpan comedy of catastrophisation. An environmental disaster causes a poison cloud and Jack’s (Driver) realisation that he will die, with death the film’s stratum of seriousness beneath the campus crisis and marital comedy. A fascinating spectacle. Peter Bradshaw
Podcast
Oliver Twist (Audible)
The world doesn’t need another Oliver Twist adaptation, and yet this Sam Mendes-produced nine-part take on the Dickens classic is an irresistibly cinematic experience, with rising star Emilio Villa-Muhammad as the orphan Oliver, Brian Cox as Fagin, Nicola Coughlan as Nancy and Daniel Kaluuya as Bill Sikes. Hollie Richardson
Today in Focus
The young people speaking out against the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God
Rachael Reign was an active member of an evangelical Christian church with branches worldwide. It was only after leaving that she came to believe it had exposed her to a “horrendous” ordeal. Maeve McClenaghan reports.
Cartoon of the day | Martin Rowson
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Former rugby league player Rob Burrow will this weekend become the first non-verbal person to read a CBeebies bedtime story. The ex-Leeds Rhino, who played more than 400 games in his storied 16-year career, has motor neurone disease and uses an eye-controlled computer to communicate.
On Saturday, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Burrow will read Tilda Tries Again by Tom Percival – a story of a girl who perseveres as life turns “topsy turvy”.
“I can no longer speak because MND has affected my speech muscles. But it doesn’t stop me from reading to my three children,” said Burrow. “I hope you all enjoy listening to the story.”
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Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until Monday.