Five tips for reducing void periods

11 March 2019 2262 Views

For landlords, experiencing occasional void periods is inevitable and often out of your control. If a tenant’s circumstances change, they could move on, leaving your rental property unoccupied.

However, there are things you can do to tempt tenants to stay for longer, extend tenancies and hopefully reduce void periods.

Here are five tips to incorporate into your buy-to-let strategy…

Find the best tenants and keep them

In order to find tenants you can trust, you will need to vet them effectively. This means checking their backgrounds, previous rental history, current employment, a reference from a previous landlord (if they have one), and running a credit check on them.

Once you’ve found suitable tenants, it’s worth building a good working relationship with them; this will help break down barriers and encourage transparency between both parties.

Keep on top of maintenance

Part of being a good landlord and keeping your tenants happy is being on top of maintenance and any other issues that may arise. By regularly inspecting your property and doing maintenance work early, you can avoid any large, expensive repair works that might require a vacant property.

You must also respond to any problems quickly and be flexible and responsive to specific requests.

Keep your rent competitive

If you set your rent too high, existing tenants will be tempted to leave – especially if they’re long-term – and it may be difficult to tempt new tenants. If you decide to raise your rent, though, suggest a fair rate that all parties can work with.

Try to stay competitive with rental prices and consider your tenants as well as costs and inflation. It’s better to retain good tenants than set rents so high that you force them out.

Offer an incentive

Offering an incentive to existing tenants could encourage them to stay longer. What’s more, offering new tenants an incentive could also clinch a tenancy deal faster.

Think about what you could offer to attract tenants that other landlords in the area aren’t doing. This could be anything from providing a discount on the first month’s rent, to lowering security deposits. Even offering to pay the first month’s council tax could help to reduce a void period.

Act quickly and accordingly

If your current tenants give notice to leave, start advertising for new tenants as soon as possible. Even when you first buy a rental property and it’s not yet ready to let, you can start marketing the property to get tenants lined up for when work is complete. This way, the void period won’t last too long.

By being prepared and having a strategy to keep void periods at bay, you can perform better than the average landlord and have your property occupied for much longer.

As a local letting agent operating in Enfield and Newham, Angels Sales and Lettings aims to make tenancies as smooth as possible for landlords.

For more information on the services we offer, please get in contact with us on 0800 043 6678.

If you’re eager to know how much you could be generating in rent each month, you can also request a free and instant online valuation.