“Tenant Demand rises to highest level in 5 years”
“Spareroom is on fire!”
“Boomerang kids are leaving the nest (again)”
You may have seen these headlines splashed across news headlines and social media platforms recently. Whilst normally August is seen as “prime holiday season” it’s also prime moving season in the lettings department.
According to a recent article by Landlord Today, 39% of landlords have witnessed an increased in tenant demand over the past 3 months now that lockdown have started to lift and confidence has increased. This is the highest figure since 2016. Moray Hulme from Paragon Bank has said “This highlights the resilience of the private rented sector and suggests that a growing number of people have turned to it at a time when the stability of a good quality home is ever important.”
So how has this affected us? We have had 3 turn overs this month, some of which we always knew about (residencies / work contracts coming to an end etc.) and some have just outgrown the space that was fine during the winter due to a change in work.
So as usual, we put Spareroom to the test. We advertise a free ad early, see how it goes and upgrade if we feel we are not getting the response needed. Well how did it go this time?
The viewing stats have gone through the roof. We refurbished a couple of rooms & ensuites in between tenants. Our original HMO is still of a good standard - better than our competition, but we have learn a lot over the last 2 years and want to retro fit some better quality carpets, add more storage and change the configuration of some rooms to make it more marketable.
However, people can still save your ad and let you know they are interested for when the ad “goes live”. We had a first - someone actually googled the company and found us through our Insta page asking for a viewing! Now that is an innovative way of getting in contact!
We are seeing a huge increase in those taking a room after a virtual viewing. We have our promotional video advertised online, but we also send a walk through video of the property for those who have passed our pre screening process. Speed is of the essence and some just can’t wait til Saturday for a physical viewing to secure a great quality room or can’t physically get there due to work. Some are even on holiday but need to move as soon as they get back. So we have had rooms secured after a quick video chat!
The day our Spareroom Ad was updated with our post refurb photography, we were back up to 100% occupancy and all rooms filled which has been amazing! We are happy with the balance we have in the house and have also managed to increase rents as the market has moved a lot in the last 2 years. We have sadly had to turn down a lot of good applications as demand is just so hot. I guess #firstworldproblems when your #oversubscribed product is catered to a premium niche market.
Hopefully, we will soon be expanding the number of rooms we have available to cater for all these enquiries to create win win situations for everyone.