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Reside Review: July 2021

Posted on by prateek

Reside General Manager Toby Martin rounds up rental market activity in July 2021.

A month of frenetic rental activity resulted in Reside’s busiest July since the company opened in 2008.

July 2020 had set a new high for lets agreed over the course of the month, but this year proved busier still.

New applicants registering for properties during July increased by a staggering 40% compared to July 2020 and was also up by 7.4% on June 2021, demonstrating significant levels of tenant demand.

What is most staggering is the speed with which available properties are being secured by tenants, in the knowledge that they are likely to lose out if they are slow to make an offer. It took, on average, just 7 days for Reside to agree a let during July, achieving an average of 100.4% of the advertised rent.

These figures serve to reinforce the recent trend of high tenant demand being underserved by a dearth of available property. With such competition for available properties, there have been few better times to bring a rental property to the market.

Reside is an award-winning independent letting agent in Bath. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of letting or managing your property; we would love to hear from you.

Extended Notice Periods For Welsh Landlords

Posted on by prateek

In news that may not be of direct relevance to our tenants and landlords in Bath, but could nonetheless be a suggestion of things to come, the Welsh government has introduced a bill that will permanently extend minimum notice periods for landlords.

The new legislation, which will be implemented before the end of the current Assembly in May 2021, will require landlords to serve a minimum of six months’ notice to end a tenancy. Such a notice cannot be served during the first six months of the tenancy, thereby preventing a landlord from ending a tenancy earlier than 12 months.

While in some cases these changes will provide more financial security for landlords, it also means it will take landlords 12 months to reclaim their property in the case of “no fault evictions”.
Angela Davey, ARLA Propertymark President

The future of Section 21 in England, or the ‘no-fault’ eviction as it’s commonly known, has been a major talking point since the last General Election, when the Conservatives promised to reform the evictions process. Since then, their response to the Covid-19 pandemic saw the introduction of temporary six month notice periods for landlords, a measure that is due to run until the 31st of March.

It isn’t yet clear what will happen to notice periods in England – they will either revert back to 2 months, or the government will extend the current measures temporarily or permanently. What we can be sure of is that changes will be made to Section 21, and perhaps the Welsh Bill is a sign of things to come.

Reside is an award-winning independent letting agent in Bath. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss any aspect of letting or managing your property; we would love to hear from you.

November Lockdown: What You Need To Know

Posted on by prateek

Updated: 4th November 2020

We have received many enquiries over the last few days from landlords and tenants wondering exactly how they will be affected by the second national lockdown in England, which passed through Parliament today.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No. 4) Regulations 2020 specifically states that activities relating to our sector are allowed to continue.

Property viewings are allowed, as long as we have the permission of the incumbent tenant to do so and they are not isolating. We are taking careful precautions when visiting any property; all parties present are required to wear face coverings and gloves, and any surfaces touched are wiped down before we leave.

Home moves are permitted, so any tenants due to move in or out of a property during November can still go ahead, unless they have been told to isolate. We are required to comply with strict safety guidelines, and the measures we have implemented go beyond what is asked of us; all moves during the lockdown will be completely contactless so tenants will not need to meet with anyone from Reside in person.

Contractors are allowed to attend properties to carry out repairs during the lockdown, as long as they observe safety guidelines. We are asking tenants to report maintaince issues to us during November, as long as they are comfortable with having an engineer visit their property, so that we can arrange repairs where possible, rather than build up a backlog of issues to be addressed after lockdown.

Our office will stay open. Although we are heading into a national lockdown, we will still be here should you need us. Our office will be staffed during our standard opening hours, but you should telephone, email or arrange a Zoom meeting should you need to speak with us. Please do not visit our office in person during the lockdown, unless it is essential to do so.

Whilst we will be permitted to carry out the vast majority of our work, we must take extra safety precautions, all of which have been carefully planned to reduce risk to all parties.

We expect to receive more detailed guidance from government after the vote in Parliament, and we shall let you know if anything changes. In the meantime, if you would like more regular updates, these can be found on our social media channels or by contacting our office directly.

Beware Black Friday

Posted on by prateek

…or: why you should be wary of cheap letting agents!

On the 29th of November the phenomenon that is Black Friday will sweep the USA and, more increasingly than ever, the UK.

Online giant Amazon has already started a countdown in the run up to the day which sees prices slashed, shoppers go bonkers and sales rocket.

It’s not just Amazon who believe that going cheap is a good way of gaining business – we’ve seen some lettings agencies do it too. Although not themed around Black Friday, we’ve come across several agencies whose fees are so low it leaves us thinking, “how can they charge that and still give a good level of service and expertise?”

The trouble is they can’t and a Black Friday approach to lettings and property management doesn’t work. Over the 11 years we’ve been managing rental properties in Bath we’ve seen agencies try this cheap and cheerful route but become unstuck.

It’s an unsustainable business model.

You get what you pay for

Landlords and tenants both suffer from ridiculous low fees, as something has to give. It could be the calibre of staff working in ‘pile-them-high-and-let-them-cheap’ outfits, or the level of property management, inventory or inspections that is provided.

The old adage you get what you pay for is particularly true in the world of property.

We have always been about charging a fair fee but delivering a superb, personal service and we like to think our track record and positive Google reviews prove that approach works for the landlords we serve.

Reside have been fantastic in letting out our property – very professional, friendly and pro-active. After the first meeting with Ben we knew that Reside was the Agency we wanted to work with. The company has many years of experience and knowledge of the Bath rental market and we like the fact that they specialise in lettings only. We were impressed with how quickly our house was let and would highly recommend them to other landlords.
Joey Snowdon, Landlord

Our management fee allows us to offer guaranteed rents to landlords, regular property inspection reports sent by email, professional photography and much more. Most crucially, it also allows us to hire the best staff who can offer our landlords sound, informed advice whenever needed.

We love a good bargain like everyone else, but some corners are not worth cutting.

Thanks for reading and if you have any other property related questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us – we’d love to help you.

Why it pays to choose a licensed Letting Agent

Posted on by prateek

We’re proud to be a member of several organisations which represent the property lettings and management industry, including the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), Safeagent and The Property Redress Scheme.

Surprisingly, there is currently no mandatory regulation of letting and property management agents in the UK, although this is currently under scrutiny by the Regulation of Property Agents Working Group (RoPA), who have recommended to the government that all residential property agents should be regulated and licensed.

Although not currently compulsory, we choose to be licensed because it’s a great way to keep up with changes to rules and regulations affecting our ever-changing industry. As membership of ARLA requires industry-specific qualifications, it also means that we access regular training and development courses to improve our knowledge.

But more importantly it has big benefits for our clients, and that is why we believe you should always choose a licensed agent. For example, ARLA has a strict code of practice which its licensed agents must follow.

ARLA provides us with expert legal advice if needed. Whenever we’ve had to call on this service in the past, it has helped our clients to fairly and legally resolve their concerns.

Being licensed by ARLA means our clients know that we comply with its professional standards. You can be confident that we take the business of managing your property seriously and will work to a professional, principled and honest agenda.

We are big believers that licensing should be mandatory for all agents, but it is currently not. With the results of the RoPA report appearing to receive cross-party support, it seems to be only a matter of time before all agents will be subject to the standards to which we at Reside already subscribe. Using a licensed agent such as Reside not only protects landlords against the issues of today, but also from the changes that our coming to the industry soon.

If you would like to let your property quickly, professionally and cost-effectively, please don’t hesitate to contact us – we’d love to help you.

You spin me right round…

Posted on by prateek

We’re always looking for new ways to show our landlords’ properties, and better ways to help our tenants decide which properties suit them. So when we came across BubblePix, producers of a brand new technology that creates 360° photographic images, we saw an exciting opportunity.

The BubblePod creates 360° images that will give our prospective tenants an honest view of property interiors – before they decide to visit.

We’re proud to announce we’ve made a small investment in BubblePix and that inventor Tom Lawton has agreed that Reside will be pioneering this exciting technology.

There are two elements to the technology: the BubblePod and the BubblePix App.

The BubblePod is a clockwork turntable that grips your smartphone and smoothly, silently rotates it by 360º.

Meanwhile the BubblePix App on your phone captures the 360º image. Users can shoot and share images in less than a minute.

Reside has agreed to act as a test bed for the early production versions. This means we’ll be one of the first letting agencies to use these images to present our properties.

Once they go into production, this will create a fantastic tool for letting agents everywhere.

To find out more about the BubblePod, click here.

Video tours – The future of property marketing?

Posted on by prateek

We have recently trialled a fantastic new way of marketing our rental properties – video tours. Working with a local multimedia company we have produced this high quality, visually stunning tour of a two bedroom apartment in Bath.

Our brand new YouTube channel can be found here.