Latest Tenancy Deposit Ratings from The DPS reveal cost of moving to property in Cardiff during last quarter


The cost of moving to a new rented property in the Cardiff area recently has been revealed following the publication of The Deposit Protection Service’s (The DPS) quarterly Tenancy Deposit Ratings.


When tenants move home they must usually pay their new landlords a deposit to insure against damage or other cost incurred while living at their new address, and by law landlords must protect this money with an authorised tenancy deposit protection scheme. The DPS’ figures reveal that those renting a home with Cardiff’s ‘CF’ postcode between October and December had to put down on average £671.74 as a deposit when moving in: a figure £298.44 (30.76%) cheaper than


the national average during the same period (£970.18). Julian Foster, Managing Director at The DPS, said: “It’s important that landlords have protection against damage and other problems that can arise when they rent out property, but tenancy deposits can be large sums and can be financially demanding when tenants move. “By protecting the deposit with The DPS, both tenants and landlords can have peace of mind over the money, with our secure and easy processes backed up with a free, impartial Dispute Resolution Service on the rare occasion that they cannot agree over repayment.


“The DPS is the UK’s largest protector of


tenancy deposits, and we’ve been entrusted with over 3.2 million since launching a decade ago.”


The DPS’ figures also revealed the relative cost of renting locally compared to London, with ‘CF’ postcode properties averaging £292.98 (43.26%) more than those in the capital. The Tenancy Deposit Ratings also showed that the average deposit for properties in Cardiff were £103.01 (18.11%) more expensive than those in the nearby Salisbury postcode (SA). Cardiff’s figure was £6.82 (0.70%) Cardiff than during the preceding quarter (£664.92) and £38.59 (3.98%) cheaper than during the same period (October and December) in 2015 (£633.16).


What is Sustainable Housing?


Sustainability has become a huge topic over recent years and has started to impact many areas of our lives, from the food we eat to the transport we use and the homes in which we live. While the word “sustainability” may have passed into common usage, it’s worth taking a little time out to try to grasp what it means with regards to property in general and housing in particular. In general terms, the concept of sustainability refers to housing which is in harmony with its environment and ideally should have either zero environmental impact or, if at all possible, a beneficial environmental impact.


Sustainability starts with construction One of the reasons why it’s important to replace existing “low grade” housing


with a modern equivalent is that the concept of sustainability starts with the construction of the house. As time has gone by, not only have home builders gained a better idea of how to build in a sustainable manner, but they have also started to integrate more sustainable features into the fabric of the house, for example, in the UK’s climate, buildings which are created with insulating qualities are inherently more sustainable than those without.


Sustainability is closely linked to suitability for the local environment


While the basic concept of sustainability is universal and many of its general principles (such as minimising carbon emissions) also hold throughout the world, translating these principles into practice means taking into account the practical realities of any given local environment. For example, cities with high population densities, such as London and New York have been experimenting with enhancing sustainability through the use of higher-density housing, which is often closely linked with developments in technology. In simple terms, reducing the amount of housing space per head reduces the amount of materials and labour required to create it and therefore the environmental impact of its construction, plus it effectively makes for a more efficient use of resources. For example it takes the same amount of energy to heat an entire building regardless of whether it is used by 1 person, 10 people or 100 people. This approach has been yielding very positive results in the cities where it has been tried but is clearly useless in a rural environment, where dwellings can be literally miles apart from each other. In these cases, sustainability may relate more to making such dwellings “passive” in the sense that any resources they use either come from renewable sources (such as


22 New Homes Wales and the South West


solar panels) or are replaced in some way, such as by planting trees for those cut down for wood.


Sustainable housing is dependent on sustainable infrastructure


Housing is, of course, a place for people to live and these days it’s also increasingly used as a place to work as well. Humans do not, however, spend all their lives in their homes. They need to go out to grow food or buy it, meet people, go to work, use services and do all kinds of other things. This means that developing sustainable housing needs the support of sustainable infrastructure. Again, what this means in practice depends on the local environment. In the city, where distances are relatively short, it may mean encouraging “zero-carbon” modes of transport such as cycling, by making them safe in every sense of the phrase and also providing effective public- transport for those for whom activities such as cycling are impractical (e.g. those with disabilities). In the countryside, however, the population spread can make it extremely challenging to develop a meaningful public transport network, so again sustainability returns to the concept of using renewable resources and/or replacing any resources used. In terms of transport this could mean making the switch to electric cars powered by solar energy as opposed to petrol ones.


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