A welcomed "goodbye" to summer and "hello" to student lettings season
“Why is your goodbye to the summer welcomed?!” - we hear you cry? Well, while most people enjoy the few short weeks of warmer weather, us letting agents tend to endure it.
From late June to mid-September, we’re inundated with occupants moving out and moving in of their Cardiff student homes. For moving-in contract-holders especially, nearly every parent is openly involved and produces a list of what they’d like to see done to the property. As they’re moving their child from what could be a 5* home to Cathays/Roath, these lists can (and do!) feature some trivial items – which is perhaps not surprising given the son/daughter could be leaving home for the first time and their parents want peace of mind that they’re living as comfortably as possible.
Often, it’s a case of agreeing that items #1 & #2 on the list need attention, but items #3-#8 are cosmetic and/or “as seen on viewing”, so don’t need anything doing other than being documented. A reassurance that “your son/daughter won’t be blamed for that” is often helpful. As a landlord, you won’t hear of those latter-reported items, as we vet them and bat them away before they reach you.
Ultimately, with only a few weeks to get everything turned around, there are always going to be bumps in the road. But a combination of our incredible team’s hard work and trusted contractors, along with decades of experience and robust procedures/policies, always sees us come out the other side.
Our summer in numbers:
- Check-out inspections completed: 494
- Contract-holders collecting keys: 3,891
- Reported maintenance tasks completed within 5 working days: 1,105
- Reported issues quashed (i.e., no need for contractor call-out) through troubleshooting and education: 273 (at circa £45 per call-out, that’s nearly £13k we’ve saved landlords!)
Figures based on data from 10th June – 3rd Sept 2024
Student lettings season
With more and more contract-holders moving in each day, this tricky period is coming to an end, so our attention will soon turn towards the ‘student lettings season.’
Positively-speaking, there has been a good uplift in rent received across most properties this year, but there’s little time to dwell on that as it’s already time to think about the next occupants. We’re already planning what goes into allowing us to attract more student viewing enquiries than anyone else: the marketing and sponsorship being two big ones, but also property presentation and photo/video materials.
So while the “must do lists” keep coming for a little while longer, it’s important to have an eye on the bigger prize, which is the new let and hopefully a further rent increase – if the market supports it.
Will the market support a rent increase?
Well, the luxury end of the lettings market has taken a hit in the past 12-18 months. Immediately after the COVID pandemic, rental prices went through the roof and the entire lettings market was crazy, perhaps buoyed by lots of people having saved money during the lockdowns. Now, things have plateaued and are getting back to pre-pandemic levels. Beautiful City Centre or Cardiff Bay apartments that were achieving £2k+ are now being marketed at £1,700 in some cases due to a lack of interest from suitable, reference-passing applicants.
More positively for landlords of student properties, homes available between July and September have always achieved the best rents in Cardiff’s rental market due to strong demand to move in during these months. It’s probably no coincidence that this ties in with the university year. Student tenancies always end between June & August and it’s highly likely that graduates who left University 3/4 years ago have entered into one-year contracts ever since, so it’s no surprise that demand for a new place to live is at its highest amongst current and past students between July and September each year.
As such, the student market always tends to withstand the test of time, so we’d like to think that further 5% rises will be the norm this year – though it could be considerably more if a property has undergone improvements since it was last marketed.
Strong lettings market = increased sold prices
The strong HMO lettings market is seeing us achieve record-high sold prices in Cathays and Roath:
If you’d like to arrange a joint inspection, during which we can discuss your property/portfolio and how we can work together to make it go further for you, please get in touch with Rhys Owen, our Senior Property Investment & Market Advisor on 02920 668585 or email rhys.owen@cpshomes.co.uk.
The information contained within this article was correct at the date of publishing and is not guaranteed to remain correct in the present day.
