Renting to Students? Find out what they find important in a home.

Students are a large and growing market for landlords. We regularly rent London properties to students, many of whom are from overseas. They’ll often pay six or 12 months’ rent in advance, they look after the property well and make good tenants.

This is the time of year that students are looking to find a rental property in London, ready for the start of the university term in September or October. So if you’re considering tapping into the lucrative student market, the results of a recent survey which appeared on a property portal made interesting reading.

What do Students look for in a Rental Property?

According to the survey, most students (58%) were looking for a home close to their university and unsurprisingly, cost was also a major influence over their decision on where to rent in London. Students in private, rented accommodation were, on the whole, more satisfied that they were receiving good value for money, than those living in private or university halls of residence.

The survey also revealed that 70% of students prefer to have an ‘all-inclusive’ rent to help them budget and unsurprisingly, 88% consider a fast internet connection to be the most important feature about a property.

How Students Search for a Rental Property?

Technology is a key factor in finding a student tenant for your London rental property. The survey revealed that, with 90% of students owning smartphones, many look for a rental property on their phone, rather than using a computer. They’re most likely to use Google (52%) to find a rental property according to the survey which was commissioned by a student accommodation website where they canvassed the opinions of 1,500 students across the country. Local letting agents and university accommodation offices were also important ways to find rental accommodation.

Most students (66%) lived in properties that were managed by landlords and lettings agents and happily nearly 60% reported that they had a good relationship with them.
There are sometimes problems though, with 40% of students reporting a lack of response on maintenance issues and 32.5% a lack of communication in general. This is where selecting a good managing agent is essential for your property investment, particularly if you are an overseas landlord.

So What do We Make of all this?

Students sometimes have a poor reputation from days gone by, but the truth is that today, with high tuition fees and living costs, most of today’s students are serious about their studies and perhaps more mature than previous generations. And they are on a tight budget so they expect value for money – just like any other tenant. They tend to pay the asking rental and we usually ask for a slightly higher deposit than usual, but in the last couple of years we’ve only had one case where there was more wear and tear to a property than you’d expect. So, in our opinion, they make good tenants, and as London has some of the best universities in the world, they’re definitely a market to consider.