Current NW Rental Market

Mr.Generous

For those interested just an update on my findings from letting a house recently.

Property was a 2 bed semi, all fresh decorated and new carpets. Market rate probably £750 pcm, but advertised at £700 because I like to pick a tenant rather than just take anyone.

Listed on rightmove on the Friday evening just before the Bank Hol weekend, so the agent didn't pick up the enquiries until Tues morning - it was just over 60. By next day when arranging a few viewings enquiries stood at 83. On the day of the viewings the agent removed the property from Rightmove as he was being swamped with enquiries - he estimated it was well over 100 but stopped counting.

The house is in an outer suberb of Greater Manchester, but on the Lancashire side. Traditionally quite a cheap area to buy and let.

One prospective tenant offered the agent £750 upon enquiry, and offered me £800 pcm on the day. I don't play that game, tempting offer though!!

The reason for the post is just to show how mad the rental market is right now. A few years ago in the same town I had to wait a couple of weeks for an enquiry when listing a house. Those who think "I'll sell up and just rent for a while" need to realise how hard it is to get a place.

As a landlord I want tenants who will ...

Pay the rent

Look after the property

Stay a minimum of 2 years

If you don't look like you meet these requirements you are going to have a hard time private renting, assuming I have pretty standard views on tenant finding.

I could go on for a while listing key things not to do on a viewing to help you get selected ( as the current market is a landlords dream ) but here's a few from recent viewings ...

Don't let unrully children run around wild booting the doors and screaming

Don't just walk round with a phone held out filming it and streaming on Whatsapp for someone else to look

Don't ask about decorating to your own taste ( Landlord has just spent 2 weeks repairing the last splendid efforts!! ) Wait till your in !!

Don't send someone else on your behalf. Never going to agree a let to someone who hasn't visited.

Don't suggest anything stupid like keeping your mountain bike in the lounge. ( Yes really )

Don't be late, rude, Surly or grumpy.

Do be on time, polite and freindly

Do show enthusiasm if you want the place

Do chat about yourself, landlord wants to know who he's investing in

Do discuss anything you want to clarify, ask about neighbors, shops etc

Do contact the agent post visit ASAP if interested

Hope that helps a bit for those trying to find a place. Good luck!

Murphybear

Mr.Generous said:

For those interested just an update on my findings from letting a house recently.

Property was a 2 bed semi, all fresh decorated and new carpets. Market rate probably £750 pcm, but advertised at £700 because I like to pick a tenant rather than just take anyone.

Listed on rightmove on the Friday evening just before the Bank Hol weekend, so the agent didn't pick up the enquiries until Tues morning - it was just over 60. By next day when arranging a few viewings enquiries stood at 83. On the day of the viewings the agent removed the property from Rightmove as he was being swamped with enquiries - he estimated it was well over 100 but stopped counting.

The house is in an outer suberb of Greater Manchester, but on the Lancashire side. Traditionally quite a cheap area to buy and let.

One prospective tenant offered the agent £750 upon enquiry, and offered me £800 pcm on the day. I don't play that game, tempting offer though!!

The reason for the post is just to show how mad the rental market is right now. A few years ago in the same town I had to wait a couple of weeks for an enquiry when listing a house. Those who think "I'll sell up and just rent for a while" need to realise how hard it is to get a place.

As a landlord I want tenants who will ...

Pay the rent

Look after the property

Stay a minimum of 2 years

If you don't look like you meet these requirements you are going to have a hard time private renting, assuming I have pretty standard views on tenant finding.

I could go on for a while listing key things not to do on a viewing to help you get selected ( as the current market is a landlords dream ) but here's a few from recent viewings ...

Don't let unrully children run around wild booting the doors and screaming

Don't just walk round with a phone held out filming it and streaming on Whatsapp for someone else to look

Don't ask about decorating to your own taste ( Landlord has just spent 2 weeks repairing the last splendid efforts!! ) Wait till your in !!

Don't send someone else on your behalf. Never going to agree a let to someone who hasn't visited.

Don't suggest anything stupid like keeping your mountain bike in the lounge. ( Yes really )

Don't be late, rude, Surly or grumpy.

Do be on time, polite and freindly

Do show enthusiasm if you want the place

Do chat about yourself, landlord wants to know who he's investing in

Do discuss anything you want to clarify, ask about neighbors, shops etc

Do contact the agent post visit ASAP if interested

Hope that helps a bit for those trying to find a place. Good luck!

Something funny that happened to me and my HM a few years ago.  We arranged to see a property that was fairly close to where we were living.  I suggested we took his car instead of mine.  His was an ancient Lexus, mine a more ancient Toyota Yaris.  The look on the landlords face was a picture.  LL chatted to HM (mainly about the car) while I did a recce round the property.  

We got offered the house on the spot

Unfortunately it was a dump

sourpuss2021

Don’t get in an argument with the neighbours while you are walking down the street to the property you are viewing, and then tell your prospective landlord about it.  He is unlikely to take your side!

I had this happen, the guy stopped to take photos of a neighbouring property for no reason other than it quirked his interest.  Neighbour came out to ask what he was doing, and an argument ensued.  And then he told me about it!

Another one was a guy viewing an upstairs flat who continued speaking very loudly when we walked back through the communal hallway to the front door.  He gave no thought to whether it might disturb the hallway flat who were on the other side of the wall.   And if he was like that at a viewing then he’d be worse when I wasn’t there…

caprikid1

Welcome to the new world, where only the big corporates are interested in letting property and they only want HMOC's due to the returns and having a team to manage them.

This is what happens when you batter private landlords with cost and regulation and fail to provide alternatives. Unless the government has a complete rethink this will only get worse. The solution is not to pump more money into dubious market propping buying schemes that just put money into developers pockets !.

MultiFuelBurner

Same here in the south east, same demand outstripping supply.

Less and less property coming up and more and more people wanting it for rental.

We have some great long standing tenants but could easily get £200 more per month on at least 5 of the properties but good tenants are the key.

gazfocus

My wife and I have been looking for an investment property and seen quite a few 3 bed semi's on rightmove with sitting tenants. When the estate agents say the current 'long term' tenants are paying £450-£550 a month in rent, I say no thanks, as the numbers just don't stack up. These people will have a really hard time adjusting to what rents have become, and the chance of getting them on a realistic rent will be nigh on impossible. 

We moved out of our house 2 years ago in order to sell ours (the sale fell through in the end but that's another story). It was an absolute nightmare finding somewhere to rent even back then, so we jumped on the first thing we were offered. It was a dump, and we ended up committing to somewhere with ridiculous rent just to move. We've now settled in a nice rental and to be honest, it seemed fairly easy to get (I guess in part because not everyone wants to live on a farm but we love it). We have family though that are really struggling to get somewhere to rent.

MultiFuelBurner

Landlords can now be very choosey over who rents their properties.

Ksw3

I know some friends have been invited to do sealed bids for a rental. Its madness out there. 

The flat we just left had a 35% increase in rent and was let within a week. 

MultiFuelBurner

Ksw3 said:

I know some friends have been invited to do sealed bids for a rental. Its madness out there. 

The flat we just left had a 35% increase in rent and was let within a week. 

I can see that becoming the norm and only the best positioned people being able to rent.

Sarah1Mitty2

Mr.Generous said:

For those interested just an update on my findings from letting a house recently.

Property was a 2 bed semi, all fresh decorated and new carpets. Market rate probably £750 pcm, but advertised at £700 because I like to pick a tenant rather than just take anyone.

Listed on rightmove on the Friday evening just before the Bank Hol weekend, so the agent didn't pick up the enquiries until Tues morning - it was just over 60. By next day when arranging a few viewings enquiries stood at 83. On the day of the viewings the agent removed the property from Rightmove as he was being swamped with enquiries - he estimated it was well over 100 but stopped counting.

The house is in an outer suberb of Greater Manchester, but on the Lancashire side. Traditionally quite a cheap area to buy and let.

One prospective tenant offered the agent £750 upon enquiry, and offered me £800 pcm on the day. I don't play that game, tempting offer though!!

The reason for the post is just to show how mad the rental market is right now. A few years ago in the same town I had to wait a couple of weeks for an enquiry when listing a house. Those who think "I'll sell up and just rent for a while" need to realise how hard it is to get a place.

As a landlord I want tenants who will ...

Pay the rent

Look after the property

Stay a minimum of 2 years

If you don't look like you meet these requirements you are going to have a hard time private renting, assuming I have pretty standard views on tenant finding.

I could go on for a while listing key things not to do on a viewing to help you get selected ( as the current market is a landlords dream ) but here's a few from recent viewings ...

Don't let unrully children run around wild booting the doors and screaming

Don't just walk round with a phone held out filming it and streaming on Whatsapp for someone else to look

Don't ask about decorating to your own taste ( Landlord has just spent 2 weeks repairing the last splendid efforts!! ) Wait till your in !!

Don't send someone else on your behalf. Never going to agree a let to someone who hasn't visited.

Don't suggest anything stupid like keeping your mountain bike in the lounge. ( Yes really )

Don't be late, rude, Surly or grumpy.

Do be on time, polite and freindly

Do show enthusiasm if you want the place

Do chat about yourself, landlord wants to know who he's investing in

Do discuss anything you want to clarify, ask about neighbors, shops etc

Do contact the agent post visit ASAP if interested

Hope that helps a bit for those trying to find a place. Good luck!

Interesting, my question would be - Where are the other 99 tenants living at the moment, what is it that they are moving from?

Sarah1Mitty2

MultiFuelBurner said:

Ksw3 said:

I know some friends have been invited to do sealed bids for a rental. Its madness out there. 

The flat we just left had a 35% increase in rent and was let within a week. 

I can see that becoming the norm and only the best positioned people being able to rent.

That couldn`t happen without a massive sell-off of BTL, and that would be enough to totally crash the market for flats, as long as there are so many people stuck with BTL mortgages there are always going to be cheap deals for the tenants who search beyond the overpriced agencies (who are paying for wages etc.) Not every landlord is stretched to the max, many can drop the rent to get long term decent tenants.