HOW CAN YOU SURVIVE THE CRAZINESS OF The UK is a world leader in higher education. Britain is the third most popular country in the world for international students (August 2021) and the number of international students applying to UK universities has doubled in the last 20 years. Many landlords look to invest in student properties, for the above and for the following reasons: 1. Demand is high and the student rental market doesn’t fluctuate to the same extent as the rest of the private rental sector. 2. Rental cycles are predictable and most student lets follow a pattern, as students will live in a property for the duration of their academic year. Sometimes longer.
Students can cause more damage, leaving the landlord with a large refurb bill at the end of a tenancy. In our experience, this is the top concern of landlords when discussing student lets.
3. The model is financially robust. Often the yields are higher for student lets, students will Drugs, parties, late payment of rent, angry pay their own bills and, full time students are neighbours – all self-explanatory but are exempt from Council Tax. In addition to this, things we hear often, when discussing your void rate will be low, because students previous experiences with landlords. will sign a contract for the whole year. Despite all of the above, student lets have garnered a bad reputation in some circles and we often find landlords shaking their heads vigorously and taking a sharp intake of breath, when we discuss their options and mention the property model as a possibility. With all the obvious benefits, why is this the case? Student lets tend to fall under the definition of HMOs (3 or more tenants, from 2 or more households) which is a compliance and regulation heavy property model. HMOs (Houses of Multiple Occupation) are not for the faint hearted or inexperienced. Some students, especially first and second years, may not have lived independently before and find certain things like changing lightbulbs, budgeting for food, conserving energy, locating a fuse-box, taking out bins, getting on with their housemates etc., challenging, as they have never dealt with them before. This often causes disharmony within the house and lots of phone calls to the landlord or the agent. 32
By far and away the biggest objection from landlords seems to be damage, with one landlord telling us “…it was fine, I just expected to have to decorate the whole house at the end of every tenancy and wipe obscene drawings off the white goods…” Some agents even recommend a slightly shorter tenancy, to allow time for a repaint between turnarounds, because this is their expectation of the tenancy.
