AT DINNER parties of middle-class 30-somethings, the talk has turned from house prices to how quickly the landlord fixes the boiler. Politicians are transfixed by stories of slumlords, dodgy letting agents and soaring rents. On July 18th a committee of MPs recommended tighter regulation for agents and landlords. George Osborne, the chancellor, wants to use a subsidised mortgages scheme, “Help to Buy”, to get renters into homes of their own. Some Labour politicians have even hinted at reintroducing rent controls—which were mostly abolished in 1988. Since 1999 the number of British households renting from a private landlord has jumped from 2m to 3.8m, amounting to 17% of the population. Renting is no longer limited to students and the transient young. Some 874,000 couples with children now rent their home, up from just 274,000 in 1999. In some places, such as Brent and Newham in London, or seaside towns such as Blackpool, Bournemouth and Torbay, over a third of all families with children live in privately-rented homes.

They do not always do so happily. Most tenancies last for six months or a year, after which landlords often kick out tenants or raise rents. Families with children who rent are ten times more likely to have moved house in the past year than homeowners, according to Shelter, a charity. Tenants usually have few rights to redecorate or keep pets.

Almost all landlords are amateurs who own just one or two homes, typically bought as a way to save for retirement. James Lloyd of the Strategic Society Centre, a think-tank, calculates that 77% have jobs besides renting property. Most rent through small lettings agents, who are notorious for charging hefty fees of tenants, often on spurious grounds.

Yet the market is at last adapting, says James Coghill, a director at Savills, a big estate agent. Institutional investment in rented property, which has been common in places such as Canada and Germany for years, is beginning to take off. In April Prudential, a large insurer, announced that it will return to renting residential property after a 30-year hiatus. Aviva, another insurer, followed in May.

Grainger, one of the oldest institutional landlords in Britain, has teamed up with APG, a Dutch pension fund, to create a fund designed to invest in residential rented property. The company hopes to build new apartments to be rented out. Some new flats are already going up in places such as Kensington and Chelsea. They will be modelled on American and German developments: residents will get services such as a concierge and dry cleaning. Tenancies will be longer-term and rent rises limited and predictable.

Small landlords have an interest in serving families and offering longer leases too, notes Jon Neale, of Jones Lang LaSalle, a property consultancy. Their problem has been that mortgage lenders typically refuse to allow buy-to-let investors to rent out properties on tenancies longer than a year. But in June Nationwide, a big mortgage lender, announced that it will allow three-year leases.

If this process could be accelerated, renters would benefit. Unfortunately, Britain’s ungainly planning system stands in the way. In countries such as Germany, where ample supply means that land and house prices are stable, long-term renting is common. In Britain, developers rely on property prices jumping to make a profit, which discourages the building of rented accommodation. Restrictions on building are thus both responsible for the growth in demand for rented property and a block to efforts to improve its quality.