Tag Archives: homes
UK tenants want to be able to decorate their properties, new poll finds
New research reveals that residential landlords in the UK could benefit from the findings that tenants are willing to pay more if they are allowed to decorate their homes. Indeed, the survey by insurance provider Endsleigh found that they would be happy to pay an additional £149.52 a year, on average, if their landlords let them personalise the property. With two million private landlords, letting out five million homes in the UK, it calculates that there is potentially an extra £530 million in revenue out there for landlords who explicitly say they are happy for tenants to decorate. The poll found that 43% would be happy to pay more rent and only 29% of those surveyed said that they have the freedom to decorate their property as they wish. It also revealed that with 25% living in a rental property for more than three years, and one in five saying they would be ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to avoid inviting relatives round their home if they were embarrassed about the décor, it’s understandable that tenants want to decorate their homes. The top desire was to be able to paint the walls with a colour of their choice with 19% wishing to do this, 17% want to be able to hang pictures or mirrors with screws and 10% want to hand wallpaper of their choice. The research also found that 9% want to be able to use blu-tack to hang things on the wall and 9% want to hang a television on the wall. Many are reluctant to ask with just 28% of tenants seeking permission from their landlord for permission to decorate but of those that do, 76 % of those tenants’ landlords agree to the request, despite it being against the tenancy agreement. ‘With it being so difficult to get on to the property ladder, people are now renting for longer, so naturally they are going to want to decorate the property they are living in long term,’ said David Hadden, manager for landlords and lettings at Endsleigh. ‘Landlords who allow tenants to personalise their property could be favoured over those who don’t and may be able to command a higher rental price. If tenants feel at home in their property they may also have longer tenancies,’ he added. Continue reading
UK rents not showing signs of seasonal slowdown, says latest monthly index
UK rents increased by 0.7% month on month in October to £1,294, showing no signs of the seasonal slowdown that normally hits the UK rental market in the autumn, according to the latest index. Rents increased across most of the county with the only exception being Scotland which saw a marginal monthly fall of 0.1% to £696, the data from the Landbay Rental Index shows. The report suggest that the latest rises indicate that the UK’s housing shortage combined with growing pay for many and unemployment levels hitting their lowest level since 2008 have put an end, at least for the time being, to the usual seasonal fall in rents that starts in the autumn. In fact the last time there was a sustained period of falling rents was in the winter of 2012/2013, when rents saw monthly falls from August 2012 to April 2013. Rents increased every month in 2014 and have been strong this year, seeing only small month on month decreases between June and August before increasing again in September and October. Typically an autumn seasonal slowdown in the rental market is caused by lower tenant demand after heightened demand in the summer from students, first jobbers moving for work, and the expiry of annual contracts that originated in previous summer rental rushes. The fact that it did not happen last year and shows no signs of arriving this year demonstrates that the UK private rental sector is seeing a period of consistently high demand and insufficient supply of properties. October’s rent increases were fastest for three bed properties, which are often rented by families moving for work, up 4.7% year on year and one beds that are most popular with first jobbers and young professionals, up 4.4%. Increases in the UK are being driven by London and the southeast. In October London rents increased by 4.1% to an average of £2,063, whilst rents in the southeast rose by 3.4% to £1,033. The impact of London on the national private rental sector is becoming increasingly evident by the surge in rents among commuter hotspots. Southend on Sea, historically not well known for its commuter town status, has seen consistently faster growth in rents than the national average. The seaside town’s one hour direct train into London and recent gentrification have played their parts in an annual rental increase of 9.7%, to an average of £759 per calendar month. Out of the top 20 areas of the UK outside of London to see the fastest rent increases, just Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Bath were outside of the southeast. ‘Seasonality has always been a strong feature of the UK’s rental market so the fact that it appears to be declining in influence is a powerful sign of the increasing strain the private rental sector is under to house the UK population,’ said John Goodall, chief… Continue reading
Residential rent gap between London and rest of UK widens again
The gap between the pace of annual rent rises in London and the rest of the UK has widened again after converging over the summer months, the latest index report shows. Rents were up 7.5% year on year in London and 3.5% in the rest of the UK in the third quarter of the year, according to the date from the HomeLet Rental Index. On average London tenants paid £1,560 per calendar month, which is over £800 more per month that the rest of the UK and for the second month in a row rents are now rising most quickly in Scotland, up by 9%. While the pace of rent rises has slowed over the autumn, rent inflation has increased in nine out of 12 regions of the country with the exception of the North West, where rents were 4.9% down, Northern Ireland with a fall of 2.1% and East Anglia down 1.2%. The October index report also includes new research into tenants’ views about the rental market which reveals that a large proportion of tenants are renting their homes for the long term and that they value relationships of trust with landlords and letting agents. Some 64% said that they planned to continue renting for a year or longer and 90% said they were happy with their landlord. However 71% would prefer to buy a home with 66% believing that saving for a deposit is the biggest barrier preventing them from doing so. ‘Our survey showed that many tenants ultimately aspire to own their own home, but that just over half of them aren’t actively saving for a deposit yet. 66% of those questioned said that a deposit wasn’t affordable for them,’ said Martin Totty, chief executive of HomeLet parent company Barbon Insurance Group. ‘However, the positive news is that almost nine out of 10 tenants told us that they were happy with the standard of their current rented property and the majority of tenants told us they were happy with the service provided by their landlord or letting agent,’ he pointed out. ‘Whilst we are seeing upward pressure on the rental market it’s important that the sector continues to drive professional standards forwards for mutual benefit of tenants, landlords and letting agents,’ he added. Continue reading
