Academics quiz landlords on bidding wars in private rental sector

Academics in a leading university have set up a project to probe so-called bidding wars in the private rental sector. 

Two figures from the Queen Mary University of London have set out a study “exploring private rental market dynamics and prospective tenant bidding” in the capital. They say the research is an attempt to “understand the position of different rental market actors in bidding processes”, and to see if or how bidding “contributes to increasing rents.”

A  briefing note from the academics states: “Anecdotal evidence suggests that bidding by prospective tenants may be behind some of the rent inflation that is happening in the private rental market. Housing and economic policy debates and housing and financial statistics rarely capture how real estate and rental market dynamics (house prices, rents) are the outcomes of the organisational, economic, and routine practices and interactions of specific groups of actors (letting agents, landlords, tenants) and processes (viewing a property, providing and checking supporting documentation, bidding, negotiating, signing a contract).” 

They say the research “aims to assess and analyse how the private rental market operates on the ground, focusing on a hitherto under-researched and under-examined practice of bidding to rent, to explore the relation between headline real estate dynamics and everyday interactions and practices.”

A questionnaire prepared by the university is seeking tenants’ and landlords’ experiences, and says their responses will be anonymous and any reference to responses will be accompanied by pseudonyms “removing any potentially identifying information from your responses.”

In one of the questions for landlords, the wording is: “Would you say that bidding tends to be led by you as the landlord, the letting agent or prospective tenants?”

In the briefing note given by the university there is no detail given about due diligence about respondents. The questionnaire has been publicised on social media by the Generation Rent activist group.

You can see the survey here.

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