Rents are Up Strongly in London

I always try to keep my tenants rents some way below the market level. This gives me a good choice of potential tenants allowing me to pick and choose the best ones who I consider will look after my properties and also be fair and reasonable people to deal with.
It also means that they feel they are getting a good deal too.
As well as that I try my best to get things fixed as quickly as possible.
I also don’t like putting up rents. My view is that good tenants have to get a reward for being good tenants.
Right now though, my rents WILL have to go up because they are now something like 20% adrift of market rents locally in one area.
The reason for this is that rents have gone up strongly in the local area, by around 8% over the last year in fact -so mine are now too far out of line.
So, I’ll be putting them up, but I will still keep the level below the local market rent.
After all, my tenants are good practical people who have earned the right to be paying a bit less than market rent (and as good tenants they also help keep my costs down)
Would I ever have rents at a premium to the market? Yes, if I had a tenant who was an utter pain – the sort that would have you out to change a light bulb. This kind of tenant costs money in terms of time you have to spend on them.
Having a higher rent for them may compensate for this extra hand holding and hassle - and if they leave because of the high rent, then that’s no problem as you will be better off with another more hassle free tenant at a market or below market rent.

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