Consett has emerged as an unlikely North East property hotspot when it comes to the time it takes for rental properties to find tenants – with homes in the Durham town renting out nearly twice as fast as the regional average.
Analysis of 15 North East areas by sales and lettings firm KIS shows that the average North East rental property finds a tenant within 97 days of going on the market – just short of three months.
Consett landlords on average have a much shorter wait for tenants, with properties in the town being rented out on average after 58 days – a whole month faster.
Properties in Gateshead meanwhile take nearly twice as long to find tenants, with the typical property taking more than four months to rent out.
Other fast-renting areas include Chester-le-Street (75 days), Whitley Bay (81 days), Cramlington (83 days) and Durham City (86 days).
The second slowest area surveyed was Newcastle, where homes typically take 125 days to find tenants.
The research also discovered that North East houses rent out 17 days faster than flats – renting out in 83 days compared to 100.
Ajay Jagota, Managing Director of KIS and founder of insurance backed deposit-free renting solution Dlighted responded to the figures:
The property expert believes the amount of time it takes to rent properties could be cut if landlords and letting agents abolished tenancy deposits, replacing them with landlord insurance policies.
He said:
“Consett may not be the first place you think of when it comes to Northern property hotspots, but there are some obvious reasons for why properties there seem to rent out faster than the rest of the region.
“The most obvious one is that as a smaller area than most of those we’ve surveyed there are likely to be less houses to rent and more competition for properties as a result– something always worth considering for landlords and prospective property entrepreneurs.
“The time it takes to rent out a property is, of course, not the only factor you need to consider when it comes to deciding where to invest in property. Although these figures suggest Gateshead is somewhere to consider avoiding it has offered investors the region’s highest rental yields in almost every survey we’ve ever undertaken.
“If you are looking to rent out a property quickly, the quickest way to do it is to remove the biggest and bizarrest obstacle to finding and keeping good tenants – rental deposits.
“Our research shows that tenants on average need to find £798 in deposits to move into a rented home. By insisting on deposits when you could instead use an
insurance-backed deposit free solution is intentionally limiting potential tenants to people who have that sort of money lying around.”