UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi All,

We've just bought our first BTL property. When we were buying the property we had in mind the student market in Bristol and the house is located in 5min walking distance to one of the campuses. We had an agent come and view the property last week in order to give us an idea how much we can rent it for - she advised that we should target the family market with the usual consideration of more stable tenants and less damage to the house.
She said she is pretty sure she can get us 1000pcm as a family let may be a bit more.

When we were doing the research before buying the house we checked what similar properties go in the market and the range is 1200-1700 pcm. (all were student lets).

I would like to ask your advice what is your experience with student tenants - do they stay just for the 9monts of the semester time and they leave of they tend to stick for full year or even a few?

I am tempted by the premium we can obtain by renting to students but worried about high turnover.

In addition I should mention that we were thinking of going fully managed as a) we are very inexperienced; b) we live 2.5hrs drive from the house.

Thank you in advance

I can't offer advice as I don't rent to students or in Bristol.

A few things that strike me as odd though.

Why did you buy your first BTL so far away?  Seems like a massive disadvantage.

Why don't you know who your intended renters are prior to this?

Are there other student lets on the same streets?  'Normal' residents probably wouldn't appreciate a student house in a non student area.  Have you budgeted for furnishing the house as student houses generally come furnished.

As the new academic year doesn't start for quite some time, hat are your plans for the house in the interim?

Agree with the distance query, how odd. I expect the OP has some ties or history with Bristol. Anyway, actually think the OP had a plan, it's just that the Agent has come along and turned their heads with a different thought. It's probably the Agent's way of "adding value" == causing confusion.

Stick with your plan. You can't have anything guaranteed, right? Different students / groups of students will behave entirely differently. Make all your assumptions on the worst case. When I let to students (not an HMO) they were just dirty. Incredibly, incredibly dirty. But I guess if you're wasting your money on a fully 'managed' service anyway, then you won't be going in to do the clean-up yourself anyway, ey?

Families can also only stay for a single year. Tough to predict. You don't want to sign anyone up for longer anyway, even if they desire it.

I have no experience of students but my last tenants were a family, they can also be dirty, as this family was....extremely dirty! So don't just think students live this way.  Be prepared to fork out the money or invest a lot of your own time between tenancies to get it cleaned up and repaired (the later could be tricky living 2 hours away.  Ensure the deposit is protected but don't rely on this money to use for repairs etc as could take 4 months to come through if there's a dispute!

Thank you very much for the replies,
We bought in Bristol although we currently live in London as we want to move to Bristol eventually - the plan is this will happen between 1-3 years from now depending how things turn out for work. Once we move to Bristol we will be living in the house ourselves. It was not an easy choice but living in London with two kids is just not sustainable long term - housing out of reach, way too crowded and stressful and just not a place where I want my kids growing.

Also to reply to RipTIde  there are other student houses on the same street and our idea from the start was to buy a house in an area where we can target students but also it was important that we like the house so we can move in there couple of years down the line. And the idea of targeting students was that even when we live ourselves in the house we would probably still have to rent one or two rooms due to financial constrains.

I am concious that being far away from the property is a big disadvantage, but then again we like Bristol and feel is the right choice for us.

We are just about starting with the refurbishment of the house as it is in pretty poor condition and we plan to put it to a decent state (rip off wallpapers and carpets, repaint and put new laminate, new bathroom, new kitchen) and then ask for a second opinion from the Agent and may be get 1-2 more to have a look.

Renting to families does seem like less hassle so we may try to offer it unfurnished in the market for 2-3 weeks and if there is not much interest then go furnished and students.

Also very valid point that the new academic year does not start in a good few months so this is an issue.

Best regards

I can see this ending in tears!

That doesn't help does it!

I would personally forget moving in there, and do what ever makes sense with the money side now.

Speak to the council / University about them managing the place 100% for a fixed term?

Thanks Boboff,
We have not thought about approaching the university directly. It is certainly something we will explore.
As to the council do you mean renting to people entitled to housing benefit? I can see the council offering such  a service, http://www.bristol.gov.uk/page/housing/get-help-renting-out-your-property#jump-link-1
Frankly we thought this as a bad option but probably our opinion was tainted from having a housing benefit neighbour who's habit was to start a fire in the current property they are occupying so the council can move them somewhere nicer!