Roy Fuller Blog

What's with the (new) attitude to renting

Attitudes to renting - the bit where you tell the public that being a tenant isn't inferior to becoming a home owner.

The speech that includes: 'it's a lifestyle choice'. You might even throw in a vague point about tenants being financially better off than buyers. This has been the letting industry's consumer message for so long, but wait. There's a new attitude in town. It's that renting is cool; it's alright but with a twist.

The aspiration used to be about making the transition from tenant to owner-occupier but a singular line in a recent article blew this thinking wide apart. One agent noted that the new aspiration was to become a sole tenant. Its client base was increasingly made up of cohabitating tenants. Not life partners or married couples but single people unable to afford the rent on their own - those that are forced to rent with a friend or even a total stranger.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest those recently separated and selling the joint home are finding it tougher than ever to buy a property as a singleton. Worse than that, they're finding they can't afford the rent all on their own, so are turning to flat and house shares, even in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

So the new aspiration is to ditch the room mates and aspire to being a solo tenant. A place to call their own, where there's no queue for the shower or sink full of someone else's washing up. Agents are so busy explaining to families and upsizers just how affordable it is to buy another home that they may be missing a trick in their lettings division. There could be a wealth of aspiring tenants already on the books just waiting to be persuaded to branch out solo-style. Perhaps you already have a vacant let that would suit Ms Brown who is desperate to escape her annoying flat mate One thing is for sure, if you have an empty let you'll definitely have an irate landlord shouting about void periods. Perhaps now is the time to do some match making and turn those new aspirations into reality.

*Roy Fuller is the Sales Director of Everything Lettings - providing the rental industry with property maintenance plans, boiler leasing, gas safety care programmes, 24/7 365-day emergency maintenance cover, EPCs and PAT testing.