It’s been a tough few months in the rental market (and there’s more on that in our latest Rental Market Report).
That said, this market never stays still for long. We’ve rounded up some of the latest renter and landlord trends – and what they mean for your branch.
Renters are clocking more minutes than ever property hunting
Although a combination of stubbornly high mortgage rates and the desire to avoid a rent hike is encouraging many renters to stay put, a lot are still looking.
Our research shows that the UK’s renters spend over 20 million minutes a week on Zoopla – that’s 345,000 hours (in essence – big numbers).
They also view over 7m listings per week on Zoopla.
Our dominance in the rental sector has grown
We’ve consolidated our position as the place renters go to find their next place – four out of five rental listings are now on Zoopla.
We’ve also got more rental listings than any other portal in London (90% vs Rightmove’s 78%), Scotland (82% vs Rightmove’s 71%) and Wales (74% vs Rightmove’s 73%).
Increasing admin burden is pushing landlords back to agents
According to research from our sister company USwitch, a majority of landlords (63%) are now thinking about switching to a letting agency or property manager, rather than doing it themselves.
The reasons behind the shift? The hassle factor.
Landlords said that dealing with repairs (32%) and legal requirements (30%) were the biggest reasons they want the day-to-day running of their properties off their hands.
Landlords more open to agent expertise
USwitch’s research with thousands of landlords found that today, they’re more open to drawing on agents’ specific expertise and skills to manage their properties.
30% said not having to find tenants was a big factor putting them off of managing properties themselves.
29% of the landlords we spoke to acknowledged that the agent’s better knowledge of the market would encourage them to work with them.
That’s as well as another 27% of landlords who cited avoiding scams and fraud as pull factors back to agents for them.
