Four Key Strategies for Landlords to Retain Tenants Despite Increasing Monthly Rental Fees

As a landlord, renewing leases and securing long-term tenancies is an important strategy for success.  As Ellis & Co. advises, ‘Long-term tenancies are an ideal situation for both landlord and tenant.  They provide stability, reduce turnover costs, and foster a positive landlord-tenant relationship.’ 

So, investing your time and efforts into securing your tenants long-term is a worthwhile endeavour.

However, our recent research, carried out among a range of social and private tenants across the UK, revealed that 65% of tenants cite the cost of rent as the deciding factor when deciding whether to renew their lease – perhaps unsurprisingly.

Unfortunately, this ‘deciding factor’ is one that is largely out of the landlord’s control.  Landlords are often forced to increase their monthly rental fees in response to their own increased costs.  Landlord Vision explains, ‘The loss of mortgage interest tax relief, increased legislation, and other landlord costs are eating into rental yields everywhere.’  So, when a rental increase is imperative, what can landlords do to ensure they still secure long tenancies and house tenants who want to renew their leases?

Open Up Channels of Communication and Improve Response Times

If you’re a landlord faced with empty rental properties you need to fill, or find yourself frequently dealing with new tenancies, then you might need to look not at the property you have on offer, but at what you’re offering your residents as a means of communication.

‘Open lines of communication between you and your tenants are crucial to achieving a successful relationship,’ says Lettings Hub.  And according to our research, 29% of tenants are either dissatisfied or very unhappy with the communication provided by their landlord, and 20% claim their landlord takes a fortnight or more to respond to reported issues.

It is vital, therefore, to ensure your channels of communication are open, honest, and easily accessible.  Lettings Hub goes on to advise that, ‘Not only does it help to build strong relationships but can also prevent any disagreements from escalating into costly legal disputes in the future.’

One of the simplest ways to ensure you have open channels of communication, and a swift and reliable process for receiving and responding to issues reported to you, is to digitise communication with an online platform.  Allowing your tenants to contact you or a member of your team digitally opens lines of communication 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Plus, our research found that 80% of tenants say their landlord offers no digital rental platform, meaning this digitisation could be the ticket to standing out above your competitors.

When choosing a digital tool, be sure to opt for a platform that also includes a list of FAQs, so that tenants can self-serve important information rather than contact you unnecessarily.  It is also wise to choose a platform whose defect reporting tool offers an AI ChatBot that will ask a series of troubleshooting questions, in order to decipher which issues the tenant is responsible for remedying themselves, before forwarding you those that need to be escalated to a member of your team.  This will save you and your team both time and resources on responding to issues that you are not responsible for fixing, while preventing a backlog of issues that need to be addressed.

Take a Proactive Interest in Tenants’ Health and Wellbeing

Recent years have brought with them a heightened sensitivity to our individual health and wellbeing.  This focus could be down to external factors, such as a global pandemic that saw people reflecting on what is really important to them – their mental and physical health.  Other factors could include the changes in our planetary environment, such as climate change, pollution and socioeconomic disruption.  And other key influences over the past decade have undoubtedly been those related to the development and soaring popularity of social media, and a decline in our mental health.  All of these factors, and probably many more, have given rise to a population who is more conscious than ever of their health and wellbeing.  And our homes, traditionally thought of a safe haven, can now also exacerbate our anxiety and stress, with the cost-of-living crisis hindering our ability to pay for basic home comforts, like central heating.

‘Fuelled by the informed ideology and mass influence of younger generations like Gen Z, who are hyper-aware of social and environmental issues, the expansive future of consumer health and wellness is proactive, highly personal, mindful, and motivated towards well-being,’ reports NIQ.  This has encouraged society to make health and wellbeing an active consideration in almost all aspects of daily life and decision making.

NIQ goes on to advise that, ‘Consumers are paying attention to what companies are doing.  Across all retail sectors, consumers expect businesses and governments to play a more active role in their health and well-being journey.’

However, our research found that 77% of tenants claim their landlord has either never discussed, has actively dismissed, or shows disinterest in their health and wellbeing.  This does not show an alignment between landlords and the social climate and should not be left unaddressed.  To be seen as a conscientious landlord, worthy of the custom of today’s tenants, it is important to stay abreast of what these tenants really want – and today, that is a landlord that shows an interest in their personal health and wellbeing.

But how can a landlord help tenants with their mental health and wellbeing?  It is not without its challenges, but to show an interest and take positive actions, speaks volumes about your values and ethics. 

One area where landlords can have a positive influence is in cases of loneliness.  ‘New analysis of Office for National Statistics data shows that the number of people who are chronically lonely has risen to 3.83 million,’ reveals Campaign for Loneliness.  And landlords have the advantage of being able to help those most in need.  According to Checked-Inn, ‘The vast majority of people living in privately rented accommodation are aged 16-24.  This age group accounts for around 65% of renters in the UK.’  They go on to reveal that, ‘The next largest group is made up of those aged 25-34.’  And as Campaign to End Loneliness reports, ‘People under 30 are the most lonely age group – 16-29 year olds are twice as likely to be chronically lonely than over 70s.’

So, with landlords housing the country’s tenants most likely to feel lonely, it is a wise move to invest in a solution that could help combat loneliness on your developments.  Ensuring you always have open channels of communication, as mentioned above, can go some way to helping your tenants with feelings of isolation, as they know they can always contact you when they need you.  However, when choosing a digital platform, you should opt for a solution that also allows tenants to communicate with one another.  This way, tenants can get to know their neighbours, form friendships and become part of a thriving community. 

If you have any shared spaces on your development, then be sure your solution also allows residents to book these areas so that they can share activities here with their new friends, when they find neighbours with shared interests, like sewing groups, book clubs, or dance classes, for example.

To help tenants meet their physical health goals, this platform should also enable the booking of any shared fitness facility.  And it is wise to choose a solution that provides a hub of articles that include healthy recipes and sustainable living tips.  All of these features work to improve mental and physical wellbeing, and make life in one of your homes an experience they never want to give up.

Include a Digital Rental Payment Option

‘Collecting rent is one of, if not the, most important elements of managing a property,’ says Arthur Online.  They go on to advise that, ‘As the world is shifting towards a more digital landscape, payments that can be made using our smartphones and computers are becoming more popular as they are typically quicker and easier for both parties.’  And yet, as our research found, 80% of tenants say their landlord offers no form of digital rental platform.

This issue among tenants is one of the easiest to solve.  By ensuring the digital platform you use has the option to digitise rental payments, you can quickly address and eradicate this problem for your tenants.

However, as Arthur online point out, ‘Not all tenants have the ability to pay like this.’  So, it is important to give your tenants the option of using a more traditional payment method if they prefer, so as not to deter any potential long-term tenants.

Offer Flexible Rent Payments

And finally, with all the above measures in place to ensure the experience of living in one of your homes is one that stands out above the competition, there is still one more method for encouraging your tenants to renew their lease with you rather than look for new accommodation.

‘Flexible rent payment solutions can help bring the rental business into the 21st century with digital payment tools and customer-centric payment options,’ says Chargeback Gurus.  Flexible rental schemes involve tailoring the payment method and frequency to each tenant’s individual needs.  For instance, if your tenant receives their wages each week, it might be easier for them to pay you a smaller sum on a weekly basis rather than put that money aside for the larger rental payment at the end of the month. 

Chargeback Gurus point out that, ‘Flexible digital payment options can make a property more appealing to a wider range of renters who are financially secure but have non-traditional banking or employment situations.’  This is therefore a valuable scheme for tenants who might find the disparity between receiving their salary and paying their rent causes them financial worries.

In a situation where the deciding factor between the renewal or termination of a tenancy is one out of your control, the only option you have as a landlord is to ensure the service you provide in every other area is one your tenants soon realise is just as important.  Get in touch to find out more about securing long tenancies with Spaciable Living, and request a demo, here.