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Higher Revenue for Landlords that Allow Tenants to Decorate
This article is an external press release originally published on the Landlord News website, which has now been migrated to the Just Landlords blog.
Is your tenant allowed to decorate your rental property? If not, you may like to know that one in four tenants (43%) would be willing to pay more rent if their landlord permitted them to add personal touches to their rental home.
Higher Revenue for Landlords that Allow Tenants to Decorate
The study of 1,000 renters by insurance firm Endsleigh found that the average tenant would be happy to spend an additional £149.52 per year on rent if they could decorate the property.
With five million rental properties in the UK, managed by two million private landlords, there is potentially an extra £530m in revenue to be made for landlords that allow their tenants to decorate.
Just 29% of renters surveyed have the freedom to decorate their home as they like. However, with a quarter living in their property for over three years, and one in five saying they would be likely or very likely to avoid inviting relatives to their house if they didn’t like the décor, it is clear that tenants would like to be able to decorate.
The top five things that renters wish to do to their rental property but can’t, are:
- Paint the walls with colours at 19% of tenants.
- Hang pictures or mirrors with screws at 17%.
- Put up wallpaper at 10%.
- Blue-tack pictures to the wall at 9%.
- Attach a TV on the wall at 9%.
Only 28% of tenants ask their landlords for permission to decorate, but of those, 76% of landlords agree to the request, despite it being against the tenancy agreement.
The Manager for Landlords and Lettings at Endsleigh, David Hadden, comments: “With it being so difficult to get onto 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.
“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.”1
If you have a long-term tenant, it may be wise to permit them to decorate. If you do, you could see your returns rise significantly.
