What do tenants want?

With good tenants being harder to find, what do good tenants want in a property seems an obvious question. Every month we receive more than 1000 inquiries from prospective tenants and show more than 400 people through our properties. Our team are meeting and talking to a lot of people about what they want in a rental property and what they don’t and while much of this is anecdotal, I thought it might be helpful to explain how people’s preferences are changing.

Robes and storage

The days of tenants carrying wardrobes up into their properties has well and truly gone but its more than that now. Tenants want space to store things. We see it day in and out that many tenants will first look in the bedrooms for built ins and walk straight back out if all the bedrooms don’t have built in. And before you say, ‘but my second bedroom is too small’, remember many couples want storage not children.

Air conditioning

This one has taken off and we are installing as many as two or three a month. It might be climate change or the fact that so many new properties with air conditioning are available but good tenants who have been in properties 3 or 4 years and paying above market rent are asking for air conditioning to be installed or they will move.

Dishwashers

Slightly less in demand than air conditioning, lots want it and will eliminate a property from consideration if it doesn’t have it. We have retrofitted some dishwashers into older kitchens by dismantling a cupboard. With new kitchens we are suggesting owners include them where possible into the design.

Pets

People want dogs and cats and in units as well as houses. It used to be that strata by laws barred this as a possibility but recent rulings by the courts have made blanket strata bans as illegal. While our preference is to avoid pets, we also know that the pet is not as important as the tenant. We have had good tenants with pets and bad tenants without. Responsible tenants are responsible with their pets and clauses in the standard lease require the carpet to be cleaned and the property fumigated when the tenant leaves.