Insurance News Archive

Landlords 'could be losing £3bn by using letting agents'

Landlords could be losing nearly £3 billion a year by using letting agents to market their investments and draw up contracts, according to research.

Property services website smartlandlord.co.uk says buy-to-let owners are usually charged 12 per cent of their rental income, or £1,550 a year, to market their accommodation to tenants via a middle man and could save money by advertising homes on the internet.

It adds that the landlords could also reduce their outgoings by downloading a tenancy agreement contract from the web for free, rather than paying £200 for letting agents to produce the document.

Keshav Thukaram, managing director of smartlandlord.co.uk, claims there is a growing number of buy-to-let owners who cannot afford to let their assets be managed by other people as they face unmoving or falling rents.

"They need to seize control of their property investments if they want to optimise their returns," he states.

Last week, Gumtree.com reported a two per cent dip in average rental prices in the first three months of the year.

23 Mar 2009