Length of Tenancy

How long is the ideal tenancy? 

The average length of time a tenant stays in a property is 20 months; this is part of a survey we carried out at Barbers and that falls into line with the national average length of time.

If you are an investment landlord then logically you want one tenant for many years, as void periods result in loss of rent and council tax fees together with more wear and tear than if you have just one tenant over a period of time. From the tenants point of view, more and more people are asking us now about the landlord's circumstances. Prospective tenants may have children at local schools, the property could be convenient for work or they have family close by. For reasons such as these, they don’t want to move in only to find six months down the line the landlord is selling or wanting to move back in so they have to get out, the problems then arise when they can’t find an alternative property in the same area. So in answer to the question how long does it need to be the answer is, as long as possible!!!

When we interview prospective tenants for landlords it is our job to understand the requirements of both parties, for example a tenant who is going into rented accommodation following the sale of their property is not necessarily going to stay in rented accommodation for a long period of time.

Historically young professionals and families needed to get onto the property ladder but it is evident now that these groups of people will choose to rent because it offers so much more flexibility and makes for a much more convenient lifestyle. The days of doing DIY on a Sunday seem over as tenants are happier to avoid that expense and disruption to their lives and let the landlord carry out improvements as and when required.  

Looking in more detail at the results to our survey from properties let last year, in Newport 57% of the properties let were for investment landlords with the area seeing the biggest number of new investors to the market out of all of our offices. Which, given the number of new build opportunities that would make sense. Only 9% of properties let had been on the market for sale, clearly here the tenants prefer the investor over the “accidental” landlord!  Home owners moving away from the area through work , either abroad or to other parts of the country and renting their property out made up 14% in Newport with rural farm cottages or estate houses making up 12% and people renting out elderly parents or relatives homes being at 5%.

Given all that, there are still tenants out there looking for a short term stop gap, potentially having sold a property and going into rented to put themselves in a stronger position to purchase or even people building a house will need to rent for six months so there is a market out there for everyone.

If you do have a property to let or you want advice on investment opportunities across Shropshire, then don’t hesitate to contact us 01952 221200 or email me at r.heath@barbers-online.co.uk