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Recent Poll Results from Crowdology™
Birth of the “Unplandlord” as rental properties flood the market
Dubbed the ‘unplandlord’ by leading property website Gumtree.com, this new type of homeowner has turned to renting as an interim solution while they hope the property market returns to previous levels. Research commissioned by the site to coincide with Gumtree’s Q1 2009 Rental Index found almost a third of homeowners (29%)** now rent out property to tenants, a massive 57% of whom have only done so in the past two years.
This means UK properties are increasingly managed by individuals who are worryingly unaware of the processes involved in being a landlord. For instance one in two Landlords surveyed had failed to draw up a legal contract for their tenants and only 42% had taken out home insurance.
TV property expert Sarah Beeny explains: “In the past two years more and more people
in the UK are becoming landlords, whether it’s because of recent redundancies, expanding
families or an inability to sell at a level people wish to. Current unbelievably
low interest rates also means people are not having to sell and can afford to move
and rent out their current property to cover their mortgage instead. The property
sales market is not going to ‘bounce back’ as some imagine anytime soon and whilst
interest rates stay low even though the rental market is slower than it has been,
I suspect we will see more and more ‘unplandlords’ emerge.”
The new property professionals admit to serious gaps in their knowledge, posing risks to both themselves and their tenants. These include:
• 46% who did not get a legally required gas safety certificate
• Less than half (47%) installed a smoke alarm
• Less than half requested references from tenants (46%)
• Nearly two thirds (64%) failed to draft an inventory
Landlords can download the Gumtree Guide to the Unplandlord now, and listen to advice from Sarah Beeny at www.gumtree.com/rentalindex.
For more information, case studies and video content please contact the Gumtree press office at Lexis Public Relations on 020 7908 6589 or email gumtree@lexispr.com
Note: This is an extract from a press release. Read the full press release
