Landlords - I’m wondering what the tenant market is currently like with the Coronavirus outbreak. Are Landlords easily finding new tenants or avoiding putting their property up for rent?
Hi Priya,
From our side of things, we saw a record week of listings last week and are continuing to see over 50,000 viewing requests from tenants every month.
I’m interested to hear from other landlords have experienced, too.
Sam
Noted Sam but as some of the posts are suggesting there looks to be a huge spike in applicants per property before the right tenants are found and questionable quality of tenants which perhaps explain your metric. I also - worryingly - note that no other landlords have come forward despite my post being up for 3 days…a case of silence speaking volumes??
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Mine has been on the market for 2 weeks.
11 requested viewings.
7 did not reply to pre screening questions.
2 were possibly fraudulent i.e. claiming a salary of £10k+ pm but eager to move in quickly etc. However upon pressing about bad credit history they went silent.
2 responded to questions and wanted a viewing but are now silent as viewing date approaches.
I will not take anyone without rent guarantee insurance. I understand that this means the tenant must earn 3x the monthly rent. This therefore means my prospective tenants must earn approx £6k per month. Consequently my market is generally more limited than most.
I have no issue with the property remaining empty until the right tenant comes along.
Whilst I’m sure the coronavirus is impacting the market, the above was typical pre coronavirus.
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We exepct the lockdown measures announced on Monay to change things, but we did have a record few weeks in early April.
If it were possible to predict which content gets the most engament, then the marketing world would look very different!
A mix of our stats (quant) and landlord’s sharing their experiences (qual) should give you the best insight into the market over the last few says 
Sam
As a landlord, i can tell you viewing requests have fallen off a cliff! And everyone who was due to view my property last Saturday cancelled. Things are so bad that i am considering a big drop in rent.
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Everything has stopped people are not interested in viewings they are too busy worrying about their health, families and livelyhood quite rightly. I do agree with the above Landlord who stated the quality of tenants coming through has been dire.
The ‘ask a question’ facility gets too many chancers trying their luck.
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The government has issued guidance that no one should move home during the current crisis, either buying or renting, Property for sale has dropped 66% in the last 7 days.
This is to prevent you coming into contact with covid either during the move or inside the new property.
In addition all house removal services have been withdrawn.
Why would a letting/estate agent even be working, essential business, really!!
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I was going to move this year . I will now put it off for a year. Making sure my children are ok is more important than my wishes
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Hopefully you won’t move away from this forum. I, and no doubt others, appreciate your succinct, practical, and occasional cheeky contributions, and I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy.
If you find time, I would appreciate your knowledge or advice on renting to companies, from how to find them, the types to approach, where I can get information on renting to this sector, and problems or tips of actually renting to a company and the types of company to avoid. When I sought legal advice on this matter, they basically would not give any, saying it is far more complicated than renting privately and keep away from it. I have a tiny mid-terrace property that is my home, but for a variety of reasons I will not return to it for another three years, so if my tenant leaves, I would like to switch to a company (lease?) if I can.
i have reduced the rent by 32% to stop another landlord steeling my tenant.this is a different world to that of 3 weeks ago.
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I am guessing the property market will be greatly affected downwards, Maybe youngsters moving back to parents Certainly firms folding and more unemployment. Keys being handed into agents at midnight, anything is possible now. Its a gloomy outlook
Well…, Being a good landlord I reached out to my tenants three weeks ago asking if they were okay & to get in touch if they needed anything. Three days later I get a request reduce the rent by 35%. Initially, I was keen to help. But then it transpired that The lead tenant (of three tenants one being her boyfriend), is still fully employed. Her salary is 45K a year. I went back to the credit checks and all the paperwork the tenants gave me in the very beginning and the lead tenants boyfriend clearly has quite a lot of savings. The third tenant was unemployed at the time and I accepted Him under the condition that he had a guarantor. Him being unemployed right now is no excuse for him to ask for a reduction in rent because the condition was in the beginning when he was unemployed and excepted him that he needed a guarantor. Also, these tenants are going to be eligible for 80% from the government and help through benefits paying the rent et cetera. I’m not a big landlord. This is my only property. I had to move out because I have medical conditions which prevented me from being able to walk up four flights of stairs because there is no lift. This is my sole income. I don’t qualify for any of the 80% government payments. I will have to claim benefits myself if I give them a reduction. I’ve never earned over 25k in my life and all three of these tenants earned In excess of this at a young age. Why should I reduce the rent? 1.the lead tenant earns over 45 grand a year and can easily cover the rent. 2.there is a guarantor so why do they think that they can ask for a reduction? 3.one of the tenants who says he’s been made unemployed I definitely know has savings. If this were the case of a single parent who’d lost a low paid job, or an elderly or vulnerable person, I would have no qualms about reducing the rent if they really needed the financial support even though that would force me into claiming benefits myself. But these are not poor tenants. I’m kinda shocked.
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Resist… they are milking it and almost a scamme…r Beware of fidlers , if trying it on with you they will be doing it with the council as well
@Amy8, i agree with @Colin3, deffo resist! Just say that, due to your own circumstances, you are unable to reduce the rent. And point out they are all jointly liable for the full rent.
I have never rented to a company because you dont know who they will put into your property, I have tenants of 20 years standing. and see most of them once a month as they are like friends to me and we get on really well They pay on time ,their rent is well under market rates ,but I have never had a void period . One of them even does the garden for me! I do not believe you would get that from a company let. I rent shops to private individuals as well, not companies ,as I believe its a more personal hands on touch. But then I can easily visit and check on them
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Had mine on the market for 3 months now. Since the outbreak no enquiries and to add insult to injury OpenRent has now taken it off the market.
I have asked if they will list it as a new property when I put it back on, as previous experience was that it is shown as a 3 month old property even though I have to pay again.
Anyone else had that happen to them?
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Modern times I am afraid. Young people now want everything on a plate. They dont know what its like to go through really hard times.
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