24.4% of Bingham tenants in the private rented sector are on Housing Benefit

“What does the ideal Bingham tenant look like?”, asked one of my landlords the other day, to which he carried on before I could reply, “Let me guess, a professional couple, both in their 30’s, flawlessly tidy, pays their rent early, doesn’t complain or fuss, who has no plans to move and cheerfully accepts annual rent rises”.

Tenants tend to fall into several groups ... 20 something professionals; young and middle aged families; corporate tenants (ie their employer finds their employee a house to live in); students; older singles/couples and housing benefit claimants – and they come with different needs and wants. So choosing who best suits your Bingham property – and steering clear of bad tenants – is a big factor in making property investment a success.

One topic that I am often asked is should they, as a landlord, accept tenants on housing benefit?

It might interest the landlords of Bingham that of the 5,595 private rented properties in the local council area, 24.4% of the tenants of those properties are on some form of housing benefit. (1,368 properties to be exact). I know many landlords have suffered late rent payments with tenants on benefit, especially since 2008, when local authorities started paying housing benefit to tenants rather than directly to the landlords, but you can’t ignore the fact that housing benefit tenants make up a significant proportion of the Bingham rental population. My opinion is that the final choice of accepting such tenants has to be the landlords but you can’t tar every tenant with the same brush (I will always give you a balanced opinion if ever asked).

Interestingly, when we compare the Bingham area to the national picture, 24.4% is much lower than the national figure. Nationally 39.2% of the tenants of the 3,891,467 rental properties in Great Britain claim some form of housing benefit (ie 1,526,915 properties).

Looking at the occupations of Bingham tenants, of the 5,595 privately rented properties in the Bingham area, 4,499 head tenants (the head tenant being classified as the head of the household) are in employment (the other 1,096 rental property head tenants either being retired, long term sick, students or job seekers).

Splitting those 4,499 head tenants down into their relevant professions, 2,425 of them are Managers, Directors, Senior Officials, Professional or Technical Professions, 430 in Administrative and Secretarial occupations, 453 in Skilled Trades, 277 in the Caring, Leisure and other Service occupations, 325 Sales and Customer Service Occupations, 232 Process, Plant and Machine Operatives and finally, 357 in Elementary Occupations.

The one thing I have always known anecdotally, but until I did my research, never had anything to back it up with, was the high proportion of professionals and skilled trades renting property in Bingham – intriguing!

If you are considering investing in property in the area please feel free to give me a call for honest opinion on potential rental returns or keep an eye on the Blog as I like to post good buy to let investments that come on the market.