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Letting is becoming “increasingly stressful” say Landlords
A quarter of landlords say letting property is more stressful than they had anticipated – made worse by the fact that a majority do not expect to make a profit in the coming year.
A survey of 759 landlords this month for Landlord Tax shows that 25 per cent say the whole experience is more stressful than they had expected, with 67 per cent saying they were more stressed than 12 months ago.
The survey does not show what proportion of landlords questioned used agents, and whether this resulted in less stress.
The survey showed that 53 per cent of landlords use part of their annual leave from work to sort issues with their properties, and 46 per cent of landlords spent up to 20 hours a year on phone calls, negotiating tenants, as well as sorting out insurances, house repairs and maintenance.
Some of the other and perhaps more obvious sources of worry for landlords included late rent payments, how to fund property maintenance and repairs, and tax issues.
Expat landlords felt under the most pressure, perhaps indicating that distance from the let properties was a cause of stress.
However, 74 per cent of those surveyed said they had no plans to stop letting out their property in the next year, even though just over half said they didn’t expect to make any money in that time either.
This ties in with figures from the NLA which revealed more than a quarter of landlords who let out a single property break even or run at a loss, meaning just a few unexpected expenses can leave them struggling.
