What is renting?
Renting is where an agreement is made between the exchanges of money and goods. A lease is more specific to housing and involves a tenant, the renter, and paying a sum of money to a landlord, the owner of property. This is usually paid each month and is made in exchange for staying at the property. Some landlords include other necessities in their overall renting charge, such as bills and council tax, which can make the moving process a lot easier for tenants as they won’t need to worry about adding their own expenses.
Types of renting:
This article mainly focuses on the renting of housing, but there are many other types of renting.
Vehicles – Transport is a popular type of renting as it involves borrowing a vehicle for a short amount of time. This is great for people who don’t own cars and only need to travel a small distance or for a short amount of time.
Filming purposes – Most T.V and film productions will rent things in order to use them in their production. This includes land, studios, vehicles, equipment, personnel, etc.
Media – Renting types of media is just paying a small amount of money to view a film or T.V show instead of buying the media itself. This has been done with physical copies in shops such as Blockbuster, but has recently moved more online with websites like YouTube and Amazon. Netflix has a similar system but instead of renting individual pieces, you pay a higher amount each month for a library of films and shows, and once you stop paying you stop being able to access the library.
Professionals – People with professional jobs are commonly rented for their expertise. Documentaries regularly use professionals to research, analyse, and demonstrate their findings to make the documentary correct.
Why do people rent?
People rent different things for different reasons, financial inadequacy being the most common reason. Most people in today’s age struggle to obtain enough money to buy a house flat out, due to the rise in housing prices and the minimal increase in minimum wage, so renting is the best and most feasible option for most adults. However, there are other reasons people rent, for example only needing the property for a short amount of time; this is usually done by people who won’t be in the area for too long such as workers, students, or people on holiday.
How to find a place that’s good for you:
Now you’ve heard about all the types of renting, you need to figure out how to find the perfect place for you. First of all, you’ll need to figure out your budget and I suggest writing out all the money that goes in and out each month. The money that goes in is typically your job, so writing down how much you earn monthly and whether that fluctuates over time, making sure the company isn’t likely to go bust in the near future is pretty important too. Then figure out how much money goes out each month, this could be on current rent, food and clothes shopping, bills such as water, electricity, heating, and luxuries such as website subscriptions (Netflix, Spotify, etc.), and social events (clubbing, restaurants, etc.).
Next, once you’ve calculated how much money you can rely on it’s time to decide where you want to move to. This step is fairly easy if you already have an idea of where you want to go, for example, when I decided I wanted to move out I knew I would want to move to London. Places to rent could be anywhere in the world but if you’re planning on moving to another country, I suggest looking at the types of housing and housing communities (villages, towns, cities) specific to that country. It’s best to look at areas that are in your budget that way you can be sure it’s affordable for you. Look at places that have elements you need, such as easy transportation if you travel a lot, or schools for your kids. Making sure of a friendly neighbourhood is also especially important if you have children. You’ll also want to decide what type of house you want to rent in, this could be a standalone house, a flat, a room within an already inhabited home, etc.
Now you’ll need to research for housing in your specifics, a great place to start is online. Websites like Rightmove, Zoopla, and Gumtree are perfect for finding housing as they have thousands of places updated every day and different filter options to specify to your liking. Personally, when I moved out I used SpareRoom as I couldn’t afford a full flat, so I used this site to rent a room in a house. Once you’ve decided on a few different places it’s best to view them in person to really get a feel for the place, in recent times a lot of agencies have switched to online viewing which has also been pretty helpful. You’ll also need to decide what to do about furniture, meaning whether you take your already owned furniture to the new place, buy brand new furniture when you get there, or opt for the property to be already furnished. These are common options on housing sites where the landlord will either leave the house empty (unfurnished) or provide furniture for the tenants to use (furnished). After you’ve viewed your choices and narrowed it down to one, place your deposit! A lot of agencies and landlords go by a first come first served basis so getting in your offer early is crucial. They’ll usually contact you to confirm that you’ve got the place, along with a stack of legal documents declaring your stay as a renting tenant. After the documents are all signed as approved, it’s time to move in!
Thanks for reading, and good luck moving!
Mia is an editorial writer for Film and Television, with interests in music and social media.
