Cashing in? The mortgage-free landlords who are raising the rent anyway

In addition to rising rents, private renters are also typically experiencing a squeeze on living space. Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

More than two-thirds of mortgage-free landlords raised the cost of new rental agreements in the last year despite being unaffected by interest rate rises, according to research on alleged “cashing in”.

The practice has triggered windfalls for hundreds of thousands of investors at a time when tenants are paying more despite shrinking amounts of space in flats and houses.