Welcome!
We’re excited for the New Year here At Home In Edinburgh, and we’ve already got off to a great start! In our first newsletter of 2019 we introduce two new team members, update you on our experiences with new Private Residential Tenancies and also take a look at how these are changing rental management for this year’s Festival.
As always, if you’d like more information or to simply chat through your situation, then please get in touch: email us at [email protected] or call us on 0131 229 4001.
Best wishes,
Vicky & Rick
1. Introducing Rachel and Jackie
Since our last newsletter update, we’re delighted to have two new members of staff to introduce:
Rachel Dixon – Long Term Property Manager
Rachel is taking over the day to day management of the long-term property portfolio from Rick. Rachel has a varied background including marketing & psychology and brings a lot of transferrable skills to the team. Rick is still available to support Rachel while she familiarises herself with each property, but he will now be able to spend more time running the business.
Jackie Hodkinson – Property Assistant
Jackie has joined the team to help the office run more efficiently. She is responsible for administration and supporting the property managers, particularly during busy periods. Jackie has had a long career in banking and is good at keeping us all on track.
Be sure to check out our News pages next week, to find out a bit more about the whole team and life behind the scenes.
2. Changes in housing legislation
We have been working under the Private Residential Tenancy (PRT) regime for over a year now. As a reminder, any tenancy agreement commencing after the 1st December 2017 is a PRT rather than the Short Assured Tenancy it superseded.
There was a lot of negative press at the time of introduction of the PRT but our overall experience has been a positive one. The standardised tenancy agreement and accompanying legal documentation are much easier for tenants and landlords to understand and the ability to send formal communication by email is more efficient for everyone.
Under the new PRT there is no minimum fixed period to the tenancy agreement and tenants can give notice at any time. Despite this, the shortest tenancy we have had is around five months. As demand for good quality properties is still high, tenants are reluctant to move unless they have a significant change in life circumstances e.g. change in job.
3. Festival 2019
The upcoming Festival will be the first where the availability of properties is impacted by the new PRT (see above). We can no longer predict which of our long-term properties will be available for August until the tenants give 28 days’ notice. This is a significant change as historically properties were advertised at the start of the year and the majority of our Festival bookings were taken between January and April.
As we provide both short-term and long-term lets, we are seeing two impacts:
Short term – for the properties that we manage on a short-term basis throughout the year, we are advertising higher rents for August to take account of the reduced supply of properties.
Long term – we expect that there will be more last-minute bookings this year. Festival visitors that normally book early will need to be patient and hope that properties become available. It is going to be a learning process for everyone.
4. Social Media
We have recently increased our social media activity so please like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for regular market updates and property blogs. We’d also love for you to share our content and tag any friends who may find it useful.
5. Landlord Referrals
If you know anyone who is considering renting out their property, then please put them in touch. We will be happy to offer them advice on any aspect of lettings with no obligation. Should we subsequently let their property on any of our full management packages then we will happily offer you £50 as a wee thank you!