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Pets more important than parking when it comes to renters choosing homes
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Original Source: Letting Agent Today.
Original Author: Graham Norwood.
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A survey suggests that the ability to have a pet in a rental property is more important than ease of parking when it comes to tenants choosing their homes.
A survey conducted last month for insurance firm Cover4LetProperty produces some predictable results – chiefly that for 77 per cent of renters, cost remains the single most important deciding factor when choosing a property, although this is substantially down by 11 per cent on the figure emerging from a similar survey six months ago.
Some 68 per cent also said that the location was key – that’s also a decrease of 11 per cent over the last six months – while having a garden is important to 48 per cent (up seven per cent from last time).
But perhaps surprisingly the ease of parking – which six months ago was the third most important factor where choosing to rent – dropped by 23 per cent down to 24 per cent, whereas allowing pets into a rental property increase four per cent to 32.
“In February, Labour said it wanted to implement a default right for tenants to keep a pet in their rental properties. It appears that the party has found this is a popular choice for tenants and would be seen as a vote winner” explains Richard Burgess, director at Cover4LetProperty.
“Regardless, landlords may want to consider their own policy on pets to see if it could help rent their properties now – or they are forced to change their policy by potential new government legislation”.
