New Discoveries Reveal Benefits of Letting to Families

Letting to families has been proven to take up the least amount of property management time in comparison to alternative types of tenants.

Findings have surfaced from over 1,000 responses to the latest quarterly landlord research from the National Landlords Association (NLA), which asked them to consider how much time they spent on property management. This included dealings with tenant queries, property maintenance requests and general business administration.

From the findings, research has revealed that landlords who let properties to families and young couples spend, on average, eight hours on property management per week. Contrastingly, landlords who let their properties to migrant workers, recipients of benefits, or who have executive lets, can expect to spend up to 12 hours per week on property management.

In regards to regional landlords, in the North West of England, it is estimated that they spend ten hours on management a week. This is almost twice as much time per week, compared to landlords with properties in the South East, who spend just five and a half hours per week.

Additionally, finding have shown that landlords with mortgages spend, on average, three and a half extra hours per week on property management compared to those who do not have mortgages. Those landlords with energy efficient properties will be spending two hours less each week on property management.

Richard Lambert, CEO of the NLA, commented: “This data reinforces the fact that families make good, reliable, and long-term tenants, but some landlords can be put off by the perceived risk of more damage or wear and tear to the property or its contents.

“However, if you’re properly maintaining the property then tenants will be more likely to stay for longer anyway, particularly families who typically seek more stability. This is just one more argument for establishing a proper maintenance schedule in the first place.

“Landlords who rent to migrant workers or provide executive lets may find it takes up more management time because there’s a greater churn of tenants which means re-marketing the property, drawing up tenancy agreements, and conducting property viewings more regularly”.

The NLA also says that another big cause for concern is that those in receipt of benefits take up more management time for landlords. Mr Lambert continued: “The combination of welfare cuts and the introduction of Universal Credit make it difficult for some benefit recipients to keep up with rental payments and that often means taking more time for the landlord to manage. It’s frustrating for everyone because the issues can be outside the control of both tenants and landlords”.