Property Manager – West Hills
A good relationship with tenants is a must
By Zoe Dare Hall
Focusing on what tenants look for in a property and how landlords can provide it
To be a good landlord, you have to get inside the mind of your tenants. And there is no shortage of tenants willing to tell you exactly what they want.
Savills has polled 2,300 private sector tenants in the UK to discover that the top priorities are location (within a five-minute walk of public transport and within easy access of work/university) and the size of property. Out of London, 25 per cent of tenants move to be in a bigger property; in London, it is the motivating factor for 19 per cent.
The under-24s are more concerned about finding a furnished property than wanting to stay put for more than a year, whereas the security of long-term tenancies appeals to nearly 50 per cent of tenants aged 45-plus.
Nearly half of renters with children would be prepared to pay more rent to be near a good school and one in four Londoners would like a garden (rising to one in three living outside London). Rent rises are, surprisingly, not a source of disgruntlement for most tenants; but landlords ending tenancies are.
Someone who knows both sides of the coin, as a tenant and lettings manager, is Maryam Bham of Hunters estate agents in Leeds: “I expect my landlord to give me sufficient notice before entering, for maintenance to be dealt with promptly and professionally, and if there are any issues that may affect me I’d like to be kept up to date.”
Cultural expectations of clients must be consideredShe is also familiar with unusual tenant requests that landlords and agents have to deal with, “ranging from one tenant who insisted we carry his bags to the property and help him unpack to another who wanted a refund of the difference between the halogen light bulbs required for her new apartment and the standard light bulbs she’d had in her previous property”.
What comes out loud and clear is the need for mutual respect in letting properties. While not quite calling for a peasants’ revolt, Douglas Fensome, director of County Homesearch in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, thinks the problems start with the “feudal and outdated” terms “landlord” and “tenant”.
“Lessor and lessee would be a good place to start,” he says.
“We live in a service-orientated society and the person buying the service should get a consistent and fair deal for the money he pays. But the whole process of renting a property is stacked in favour of the person letting rather than the paying customer, not just by the commercial reality of demand exceeding supply but also the complexity of the tenancy agreements to create the letting.”
Landlords often try to scrimp on getting a full, professional clean. “Hardly a good start to a responsible relationship,” says Fensome.
Jonathan Monjack, chief executive of The Happy Tenant Company, which provides landlords with a cheaper alternative to conventional lettings agents, says: “What all tenants want is for matters to be dealt with urgently, and to be treated as customers rather than annoyances.
“Dealing promptly with maintenance problems and fairly with other issues generates goodwill that pays dividends. It is proven to result in prompt rent payments, so small problems don’t become big ones and even finding replacement tenants when they vacate.”
Cultural expectations of clients must be considered as well. Not all requests are as barking as that of a French tenant to Giovanni Agostinelli, of Lichfields, a buying agency also sourcing high-end rentals: a dog mini wardrobe for his pet’s couture.
Outside space is popular, particularly among Australian tenantsAnshul Raja, lettings area director for Knightsbridge & Belgravia at Chesterton Humberts, says: “Coming from India, I still find it bizarre that people have fabric on their floors.”
He echoes many letting agents’ pleas to remove carpets, particularly in bathrooms, to widen appeal to international tenants.
Security is crucial for many overseas clients, especially wealthy students with parents abroad, so basement flats are out and portered buildings in. Also bear in mind the wealth, and thus the expectations, of many tenants in prime central London.
“We’re seeing an increase in demand among Indian and Middle Eastern clients for “servants’ quarters” and one applicant asked for a day room for his chauffeur,” says Raja.
Outside space for barbecues is popular, particularly among South African and Australian tenants. Just make sure occupants are not restricted from cooking outdoors in your lease. You may be glad of a tenant like Agostinelli’s client, who wanted a second flat near the first so he could hold barbecues there.
Landlords face competition from build-to-let schemes. Get Living London’s East Village in Stratford claims to have the answer: “No transaction, reference or inventory fees and no agents as middlemen, just stylish furniture (designed by Wayne Hemingway), immediate access to a maintenance team and a range of flexible long-term tenancies,” says Derek Gorman, the company’s chief executive.
There is clearly homework to be done for landlords seeking to crack what tenants want.
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