A very useful report from Fixflo has been published outlining how the lettings market is managing the recent housing policy changes and how they have affected practically every group in the private rented sector.For me the key takeaways are:
- 18% of agents in England and 32% in Scotland responded saying they were ‘not at all confident’ with the property licencing regulations which are enforced by local authorities so this is an area you could focus on to become a subject matter expert and look at how reports such as HMO inventories, fire risk assessments, legionella risk assessments and FFHH reports could factor into your service provision
- TDB – 60% of agents introduced new revenue streams to their business – in my current experience many have actually increased the outsourcing of their reports
- Almost 9 out of 10 landlords surveyed shared that they found it harder to be a landlord this year so think about how you can identify and ease their ‘pain points’
- Observations suggest that *winning new landlords *is going to be the key initiative for many letting agents so again how can you help them achieve this; detailed and professional reports, great service and a ‘can do’ approach?
- As many as 95% of landlords surveyed prefer to use their own contractors with almost half (45%) of landlords reporting said that they do not use any agency services so there is a real opportunity to target the private landlord rather than just the high street agent
- In July 2019, RoPA released their final report to much anticipation from the industry. The report suggests that the new, regulated future will make qualifications and Continued Professional Development (CPD) mandatory for personnel carrying out ‘reserved activities’ and as they are still yet to be firmed up there is very distinct likelihood that inventory providers will fall into the category of activities as we are very much customer facing
- 85% of tenants find it very easy to report repairs online which clearly shows they are comfortable with using tech (apps, iPads, smart phones etc) so again an opportunity to showcase your reports and how easy to use and tech friendly they are
As the reports says; change is coming, but for the well-prepared it brings opportunity
A copy of the report can be found here: InventoryBase Academy Dropbox Folder