Non-resident landlord in the UK
A property having a non-resident landlord is increasingly common, what this means for letting agents is that there is a potential untapped market out there. If you think about it, there is far more profit to be made from a client who requires more than a let-only service.
What kind of services does a non-resident landlord require?
Most likely, they will need a full property management service, along with someone to find new tenants. They will need to feel that they can trust the letting agent with their property; remember, they can’t just check up on the property if they are abroad. Without a doubt, accountability and transparency are the key here. Lack of communication between letting agent and landlord may cause the landlord to change letting agent – they do not want any extra stress.
It’s just a matter of finding the landlords, or making it easier for them to find you. Attracting a landlord via the internet is therefore vital. That’s where a non-resident landlord will go if they are looking for someone to manage their property.
Is there really much potential with a non-resident landlord?
Short answer – yes!
It is estimated by UK Revenue and Customs that approximately 5 per cent of the 1,930,000 landlords who answered ‘yes’ to q4 of the SA100 tax return form in 2010-2011 since only 5 per cent reported a non-UK address. Question 4 is ‘Did you receive any income from UK property (including rents and other UK income from land you own or lease out)?’ This means that around 96,500 potential non-resident landlords could be looking for your business in the UK.
Google searches are another thing that must be taken into account. There are currently at least 3500 searches per month relating to property management and letting agents in the UK, made from outside of the UK.
For example:
There are 1,450 searches per month
made outside the UK
through Google and Google search partners (This would include YouTube, which is owned by Google now)
for these terms: letting agents london, property management london, letting agency london, letting agent london, rental agency london, property manager london, rental agent london
Now granted, some of these searches may be from future tenants looking for somewhere to live before moving to London, however a great deal could be from property owners. This is something we have no way of knowing yet but
This means that within the London area alone, there are potentially 1,450 non-resident landlords per month looking for a letting agent to let and/or manage their property.
Where are these searches coming from?
Well as you’d expect, there are strong numbers from countries where English is spoken and there are strong migration patterns to and from the UK.
Searches came from:
US 250
India 170
Canada 130
Australia 90
Ireland 80
New Zealand 70
South Africa 60
Where are they searching from?
Now to market to those landlords!