With more landlords prioritizing quality tenants and longer tenancy over rental income and profit, we thought it would be good to do a blog to help you increase the length your tenant remains in your property. The greatest benefit of a long-term tenancy for a landlord is the safety, security and peace of mind that the tenants will be staying in one place for a long time, and that you will be maintaining a steady income
Why A Longer Tenancy?
- Minimizes cost for getting new tenants and the whole tenancy process
- Minimizes costs to get your property ready for a new tenant such as re-decoration
- Reduce risk of property being empty for periods
- Tenant settled are more likely to invest in the property such as redecorating or buying nice furniture
- Tenant take steps to minimise wear and tear –. While wear and tear is inevitable over time, a careful tenant who is expecting to stay in their property for a long time can minimise it. For example, things like not wearing shoes inside can extend the life of carpets being more careful with furniture against walls and fixtures and fittings. (Landlords can’t deduct from a deposit for wear and tear)
- A tenant who is confident they are going to live in a home for the long term has a much stronger incentive to work with the landlord or agent to fix issues promptly, for example problems like leaks can spiral and become much more expensive to fix if they aren’t dealt with quickly.
So you can see where this is going…on the whole longer tenancies can be less costly and can lead to a better looked after property. Tenants who feel the property is their home for a long time,are more inclined to look after it.
Overall longer term arrangements in property can make really good business sense
Now The facts(propertyloop.co.uk)
- 81% of tenants would accept longer tenancies if they were offered
- 75% of landlords didn’t offer longer tenancies
- 12% of renters would have chosen a three year tenancy, if available
- 41% of tenants were in favour of 3-5 year tenancies
Tips To Get Quality Tenants
- Offer viewings at times that are convenient for tenants
- Make sure you can answer questions on matters such as distance of doctors/dentists and local amenities
- Consider allowing your tenant to have a pet. In fact In January 2021 the Government published a new standard tenancy agreement so Landlords can no longer issue a blanket ban on tenants having pets.
Only about 7% of landlords advertise pet-friendly properties, which is not representative of the 44% of homes who have pets. I’ve been a dog owner a huge part of my life and know what they can mean to a persona and a family and most definitely hand on heart can say I left my rental home nicer than when I moved in. I now have a child…and often feel my dog was easier to control.
Read more at- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55844950
If you have a good tenant, they are worth their weight in gold, so offer an incentive to renew before the tenancy ends. Could you offer to keep the rent the same for a fixed period or offer to redecorate? Remember if you keep them happy you will be rewarded with shorter void periods and a well looked after property.
How To Increase Tenancy?
- Are you responding to maintenance issues promptly?
- Are you keeping up to speed on local market demands and what tenants are looking for?
- Have you invested in the property and upgraded areas required like kitchen and bathrooms?
- Have you freshly decorated between tenancies?
- What are the local amenities like?
- Is there a good choice of local schools?
Here at Belvoir we can help with all of the above with our specialised tenancy process and help you achieve that much needed longer happy tenancy
A landlord may assume that the long-term tenant guarantees monthly rental and they will look after the property……a great deal of the time yes but it is important not to be complacent. When the same tenant remains in the rental for a long time, it is easy to lose track of needed maintenance on the rental property. Don’t forget to make a plan for routine upkeep. Here at Belvoir we inspect our properties on a regular basis to ensure all the maintenance issues are dealt with swiftly and the landlord does not have to deal with any problems themselves.
