Like lambs to the slaughter

From City AM:

Private landlords’ property is worth £930bn – and is set to reach £1 trillion next year on the sustained rise in UK house prices, according to estimates by Kent Reliance...

And that has accelerated in the past year, thanks to rocketing prices. The average return over the past year in London was 21.4 per cent, with 16.4 percentage points of that coming from price rises.

“Private renting isn’t a flash in the pan, and 80 per cent of new households since 2001 have been accounted for in rental properties,” said Andy Golding, chief executive of OneSavings Bank which owns the Kent Reliance brand.

“While for many it is a lifestyle choice, the ongoing squeeze on wages, rising house prices, not to mention difficulty in obtaining sufficient mortgage finance is accentuating this shift in tenure from owner-occupation to long-term renting.

"In many ways, Britain is becoming a more normal nation, much more like its continental neighbours as a result."

Apart from the fact that most of our "continental neighbours" have rent controls, of course...