Question to Lodgers about ensuite/bathroom situation

ellienora

Hi

I'm in the process of offering a spare room out for a lodger and just have a couple of questions about what a lodger would expect for their money.

It is a medium sized well furnished single room with a TV in the room and WIFI. With all bills included etc. I was looking to rent it for roughly £350 pcm. It is in an excellent residential location with a train station a 5 minute walk away with direct trains to central London. And a short walk / 5 minute drive into town centre.

However if i only have a shared bathroom with a bath but no shower would this effect my rental expectations.

Thanks!

yoshiyella

ellienora wrote: »

Hi

I'm in the process of offering a spare room out for a lodger and just have a couple of questions about what a lodger would expect for their money.

It is a medium sized well furnished single room with a TV in the room and WIFI. With all bills included etc. I was looking to rent it for roughly £350 pcm. It is in an excellent residential location with a train station a 5 minute walk away with direct trains to central London. And a short walk / 5 minute drive into town centre.

However if i only have a shared bathroom with a bath but no shower would this effect my rental expectations.

Thanks!

Never bothered me at all when I was lodging having to share a bathroom!
Wouldn't have bothered me either about not having the shower and just having a bath!

inatdeepend

I've been a lodger a few times.

Sharing a bathroom isn't a big deal at all.

Not having a shower may be to some people BUT there will always be people who are quite happy (my parents only take baths and never shower). I guess it depends who you are trying to appeal to - if you're trying to get someone "young professional" they probably would want a shower.

One option is just to advertise and see how it goes, if a lack of shower becomes a problem, would it be a big expense to get the bath taps converted to have a shower attachment?

brett84n

£350 seems cheap if you have good links to LOndon,

yoshiyella

brett84n wrote: »

£350 seems cheap if you have good links to LOndon,

I was going to say that! £500 would be probably be nearer the mark!

Annisele

£350 seems extremely cheap - unless you mean the direct train to London takes five hours to get there!

Have you checked Gumtree etc for the sorts of rents other people are charging for similar rooms?

I_have_spoken

Stick in a shower-over-bath and set the rent at £450, it'll be paid for in a couple of months

agrinnall

Given that it's likely to be either impossible or a hell of a lot of work to put in a second bathroom there's not really any point in worrying about only having one bathroom. I would put in an over the bath shower if only to cut down on your water and water-heating bills.

ellienora

Thanks for all your replies!

No, not 5 hours to get to london! It's in the Apsley area in Hertfordshire, it's a 25minute train journey to Euston, London. Having the shower installed in the future is a possibility but for now just looking to see how it goes without one, just to see what the rental potential is.

ultrarunner

You're definitely underpricing. One of the benefits of charging a premium is you filter out some of the potentially more undesirable lodgers!

Pidge_jen

Having grown up in Hemel and looked at renting rooms there approx 3 years ago, I think you are undercharging, it was in excess of 400pcm back then unless u wanted to be in the furthest corner of hemel in a not so nice location. Set the rate to 500pcm and it will get snapped up, and will still be a bargain for them! Think 550-600 is probably the ceiling price as Apsley is a smaller station with slower trains to London.
From my point of view, I'd want a shower, but mainly to wash hair. A combination bath/shower tap is fine though if you don't want to install a wall mounted one.
Good luck with getting a lodger