New Research Says Renting From Private Landlords Ages You Worse Than Smoking Or Obesity

Yes, we all know the worst kind of suffering is suffering a landlord, but no one could have imagined that the damage to your health is worse than smoking.

A troubling study from the University of Adelaide and University of Essex found that being a renter is worse for your health than even smoking or being obese. Just how bad the stress is? Apparently, renting adds weeks to your aging rate. If you’re a Retinol user, the rate in which renting accelerates your aging is probably enough to negate any great skincare routines. Curiously enough though, this only applies to renting from a private landlord, not living in public housing, a form of social renting.

From a New York Post report on the study:

A landmark study out of the University of Adelaide and University of Essex has found that living in a private rental property accelerates the biological aging process by more than two weeks every year. The research found renting had worse effects on biological age than being unemployed (adding 1.4 weeks per year), obesity (adding 1 week per year), or being a former smoker (adding about 1.1 weeks). University of Adelaide Professor of Housing Research Emma Baker said private renting added “about two-and-a-half weeks of aging” per year to a person’s biological clock, compared to those who own their homes.

“In fact, private rental is the really interesting thing here, because social renters, for some reason, don’t seem to have that effect,” Professor Baker told the ABC News Daily podcast. She said the security of social renting — aka public housing — and homeownership has compared to people living with an end-of-lease date on their calendars. “When you look at big studies of the Australian population, you see that the average rental lease is between six and 12 months,” she said. “So even if you have your lease extended, you still are living in that slight state of kind of unknowingness, really not quite secure if your lease is actually going to be extended or not.

We think that that is one of the things that’s contributing to loss of years, effectively.”

Ouch, straight in the feels…

You can read the study here.

Also read: Landlords Accused of Colluding with Property Management Software to Artificially Raise Rent

Photo by RDNE Stock project