5 Quick Fixes to Raise Your Rental Income

One of the most effective ways to get the most out of your buy-to-let investment is to increase your property’s rental value. However, as a landlord, if you’re wondering how to increase rent, you may feel that making any changes worthy of adding value are likely to put you out of pocket in the short term. Thankfully though, this is not the case.

If you were to invest £500 on your property and subsequently increase your property’s rent from £800 to £900 a month, this would make you an additional £1,200 over the course of a year. Even taking the initial investment out of this total would leave you with a profit in the first 12 months!

Small changes can impact your property’s functionality and appearance, making it more appealing to current and potential tenants, so how can you maximise your rental property’s value without spending a fortune? These are a few quick, easy and relatively inexpensive fixes any landlord could make to help raise their rental income each month.

1. Update kitchen and bathroom fixtures and fittings

By putting just a little time and attention into both your property’s kitchen and bathroom,  you can easily increase your rental income without having to carry out any major renovation works. Sink taps, handles and tiles in both rooms, as well as showerheads, towel rails and cupboard doors can easily get dirty, come loose, or break altogether. However, it isn’t too expensive to replace these fixtures and fittings, and these minor changes can give a dated kitchen or bathroom a whole new, modern look, for a fraction of the cost of updating the whole room.

2. Give the place a fresh lick of paint

Depending on how long your previous renter was in the property for, a fresh coat of paint in all rooms between tenancies will not only cover up all scuff marks and signs of wear and tear, it’ll give the whole property a new lease of life. While it might be tempting to decorate the property as you would your own home, best practice would be to appeal to the masses and instead keep all rooms neutral, letting them become a blank canvas for each tenant who moves in to make their own.

3. Outdoor spaces

If your property is lucky enough to have a garden or outdoor area, ensuring this is both well presented during viewings and is easy to manage for new tenants is a profitable idea. If necessary, cut the grass and tidy any flower beds before prospective tenants come to view.  In addition, you may find that busy tenants may not want to spend long hours looking after a garden, therefore you could also offer (for an additional cost) to arrange for a gardener to take care of the space instead.

4. Consider ‘added’ extras

If the property is unfurnished, consider furnishing so that it is ready to be lived in right away. Or, if it is already furnished (with basics such as white goods, a bed and a sofa), you could think about purchasing additional smaller items, such as a kettle or a toaster, to make your property more attractive to others. You could charge a little extra each month for providing these items, however, to new tenants (especially those moving out for the first time without these belongings) this arrangement may be more appealing than having to buy them themselves upfront.

5. Allow pets

While this won’t affect your property’s price, it could allow you to charge a little more each month. Opening up your property to people with pets (and you can decide on which animals make the cut if you don’t want to allow all) increases the number of prospects – and therefore the demand and the price. The extra ‘rent’ can also cover any extra costs required between tenants such as more thorough carpet cleaning or marks on skirting boards or walls that animals could make.

Looking for more help and guidance on letting a property? Chancellors can make your life easier. Find out more by reading our Guide to Landlords.