Quick guide to managing student tenants
Student rentals are a profitable market for landlords. With high demand from students and offering longer rental periods, resulting in higher yields, it’s easy to see why this is a lucrative market.
As a landlord, the approach to letting your property out to students tenants is slightly different from the regular rental market.
Here’s our guide to managing student tenants:
Secure your tenants sooner
Like any property, there are peak advertising months which are more likely to secure tenancies than others. With student properties, this window is more concentrated and predictable – which can be great as you’ll know when to prioritise your property advertising and hopefully get your tenants secured sooner for the next university year! We suggested focusing your advertising efforts from November onwards to secure tenants for the following academic year, which usually starts August/September.
What to include
Almost all student lets come fully furnished and we suggest keeping it cheap and cheerful, stores such as Ikea and Argos are recommended. As a rule of thumb a ‘fully furnished’ property should include;
- Adequate seating in the living room
- Table and chairs in the dining area
- A bed and clothing storage in each bedroom
- Curtains/blinds on the windows
- Main kitchen appliances – Cooker and fridge
A few rental properties do also include a TV in the living room but this is optional. Adding a TV will make your property a little more competitive but if you do include one, make sure it is insured!
Another way to be competitive is to offer your property as bills inclusive. Bills inclusive properties are on the rise in recent years, becoming extremely popular with student tenants. This service includes gas, electricity, water, TV and broadband as one fixed bill that is included in the tenant’s rental price – It’s convenient, hassle-free and makes it easier for tenants to budget. To find out more about the ubundle bills inclusive service, have a read of this article.
Good communication is key
Remember, most students haven’t rented a property before – establishing communication is a great way of ensuring the tenants give them as much guidance as possible. Simple things like leaving step by step instructions for how to work household appliances will go along way. If your property has multiple tenants, establishing a lead tenant is a good idea. It means you aren’t constantly calling or emailing multiple tenants, instead, you have one direct line of communication.
Make sure your tenants are clear on the rent payment due dates. To make it easier for students, many letting agents and landlords take payments quarterly coinciding with their student loan instalments.
Student landlord checklist:
- Guarantor form – Get tenants to sign a guarantor form before moving in- It’s safety net to ensure if your student tenant can’t pay then you will be getting the rent from their guarantor (usually their parent)
- Inventory form – Provide an inventory form for tenants on the first day of moving into the property to ensure property conditions are checked. This is good to refer back to if there is any damage done during tenant occupation. Top tip: add photographs to your inventory form
- Correct Property Licencing – Licence your property as an HMO if your property has at least 3 tenants living in it, forming more than 1 household.
- University approved – Getting ‘University Approved’ as a landlord gives you more credibility within the student market, there are usually a few checks done by the university but it is definitely worth it if your local universities offer this service.
- Offer Bills Inclusive – The majority of students actually prefer bills inclusive properties. To make your property more desirable to student tenants, we strongly recommend adding bills inclusive to your property offering.
For a ubundle bills inclusive quote simply register via our online portal and submit your property details today – best of all our ubundle service is free to all landlords!