Could landlords be missing out on over £500m a year?

Landlords of Britain could potentially earn an extra £500m in revenue every year if they allowed tenants to decorate.

According to a recent survey, tenants in England would happily pay out almost £150 a year extra in rent if their landlord allowed them to make changes to the property.

The UK currently has around two million private landlords letting out five million properties, meaning the potential for extra earnings could be huge.

Looks do matter

Over 70 per cent of landlords don’t allow their tenants to decorate.

And given that one in five admitted to being ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to avoid inviting relatives to their home if the decorations weren’t up to scratch, it shows the importance renters place on décor.

You don’t ask, you don’t get?

However, when tenants do ask permission to decorate, they’re often pleasantly surprised.

Three out of every four tenants who ask find that their landlord is happy for them to make changes - even if it’s against the tenancy agreement - yet less than a third of tenants actually ask.

What tenants want

The survey from Endsleigh also shed light on the types of improvements tenants would most like to make.

Painting walls and hanging pictures and mirrors with screws were the two things that tenants wanted most, with 19 and 17 per cent of tenants mentioning these respectively.

Meanwhile, 10 per cent of tenants wanted to hang wallpaper and nine per cent said they wished to blu-tack pictures on the wall and hang a TV.

Do you let your tenants decorate? Let us know in the comments below.