Quick, a new marginalised minority group has dropped! Landlords are becoming concerned that the word is now seen as a slur – they’d prefer (update your records) to be referred to as “housing providers”. To which I choose to smile tightly and try my best. As yet, there are no Landlords Lives Matter campaigns, but browsing #PropertyTok, a hashtag under which these people congregate in very tight polo shirts to boast about the latest tricks they’ve come up with to wring more cash from their tenants, I give it three months.
My favourite #PropertyTok videos – I say favourite, I mean, the videos that inspire the most emotion in me, a reaction, albeit allergic and bilious, the feeling that the world is made of paper and about to fold in half – are the ones where the landlord explains how to “rent to rent”. Subletting, is what you or I might call it, but here it has been rebranded as a cheeky life hack, much like deodorising your microwave with lemon juice. “Rent to rent” means renting a flat, then letting it on Airbnb for twice what you’re paying, your tenant now crushed under a double-weight of landlords, a rare experience in that it is absolutely nobody’s kink.
