Client demand and void periods 'keeping landlords awake at night'

A study by an online letting agent suggests that client demand and void periods are two of landlords' biggest concerns, and likely to keep them 'awake at night'.

Upad's landlord study found that a fifth of investors consider levels of client demand to be their primary concern.

Meanwhile, 87% of those surveyed agreed that managing and mitigating void periods is an important consideration (13% - ‘quite important’, 74%, ‘very important’).

Despite this, two thirds of the landlords surveyed last month said they had no intention of changing their portfolio over the next two to five years.

Upad quotes one of its landlord clients, Laura Dawson - a part-time landlord with six properties. She says that tax changes have made many landlords question their future in the rental sector.

"I’m, however, viewing my portfolio as a long-term investment strategy so have no immediate plans to change anything," says Dawson.

"What is often of more concern, is the impact that is felt between tenancies when a property is delivering no rental income."

"The market is currently very buoyant so this is less of a concern right now, but that can change at any time and when a property does stand empty, the landlord starts to rack up costs," she continues.

"The longer a property takes to let, the less attractive it becomes to prospective tenants, not only because it drops further down the listings, but also because it becomes perceived as ‘unpopular’."

Upad founder James Davis comments: “It’s easy to assume that landlords are most troubled by the big issues of the day, those topics which the industry and media become all-consumed by."

He says that these issues clearly do worry landlords, but it is often the more 'mundane' aspects of letting a property that have an impact on how a landlord chooses to manage their portfolio.