Yes this is a misleading title. I still have my soul, at least whats left of it, my left foot is very much attached to my body last time I checked and unless someone forgot to tell me something, I am yet to have any offspring in this world.

 

But when searching through the depths of Zoopla and Rightmove, and once you start considering if that 4 square meter garage that you saw for 800 a month isnt that bad after all (I mean it would only be a 50min commute to school and it does at least shelter from the sun, BARGAIN), I don't know whats going on anymore. 

 

To be fair, I can understand the pricing of flats in London. I don't enjoy it but I can understand it. Because while London rents are about double that of the median in the rest of the country, It is still one of the more prestigous cities in Europe. Combine this with a housing shortage, and you have high as fuck prices. Supply and demand. Capitalism fuck yeah. 

What bothers me more, is the relentless pursuit of beuraucratic and administrative obstacles that are put in place at every single agency in town. It is a system built on the foundations of distrust between companies and people. 
In order to move into a flat, you need to be able to pay 6 weeks rent as a deposit, 1 months rent, hundreds of pounds in admin fees, referencing fees, guarantor fees, fees to start the contract, the list goes on. And this is only if you prior to this have been able to aquire a UK based guarantor, who has to earn 30times the monthly rent annually. If not, add to the previous fees 6 months rent up front. Did I mention that the contract is also on a standing 12 month? For my dear scandinavians at home, this means that; No you cannot move out when you want. I know. 

 

"But of course that makes sense? How will the landlord know that you can be trusted to pay rent otherwise?" This is such bullshit. At what point did we stop trusting each other this much? I understand that there are people out there who will fuck up their payments of rent, that will mess up the flats they live in completely and so on. But for every 1 of these people, 100 others are completely normal tenants. If you do not pay rent, you will end up in the streets. Easy as that. 

 

What this system does, is that it makes sure that the class divisions of society are kept. Because of the fact that low income citizens are very unlikely to be either referenced correctly, or be able to pay the rent up front, they are less likely to end up in a better environment. Everyone who has lived in a flat share, or (god forbid) in a hostel for a prolonged time, knows that at after having that feeling of "not my place" for a long time, you start losing alot of your driving force. All people need to be able to feel at home somewhere, and when you put up barriers for that simply based on distrust, you get a society that is squeeking in the seams. 

 

Londons renting market won't be the fall of western civilization. And for me who is born middle class, and come from a country where we still value education (God bless CSN), I can manage these things. But there are so many people in London, who would need regulations to be put in place to ensure that they can have a decent place to call their own. In 2016, that should not be too much to ask.