Why Remote Letting is a Big Opportunity for West Sussex Landlords

15.04.2021

Property investment has long been an excellent way to invest in long-term, stable assets with rental income to balance out the cost of mortgage payments.

West Sussex is one of the most sought-after areas in the UK for landlords who want to purchase high-quality, attractive homes. There is a reliable demand from tenants who aspire to the relaxed, family-friendly lifestyle in this desirable area.

Indeed, Chichester saw one of the most substantial leaps in 2020, with properties in the city growing in value by around 5% on average. However, we increasingly hear from landlords who feel confined to a specific city or town or even a particular postcode, given their desire to keep their rental property portfolio close at hand.

Let’s explain how remote lettings work and why it’s a significant opportunity to lower your property investment risk and drive up earnings.

The Advantages of Diversifying a Property Portfolio

First, let’s think about what diversification means – and how it can be a sure-fire way to avoid any potential downturns.

The two prominent decision-making components for any astute landlord are:

• Risk: how likely is it that a property will become vacant and that you won’t be able to find a tenant? This can make a massive dent in your profit since Buy to Let mortgage interest payments will continue regardless.
• Return: where are the up and coming areas in West Sussex? Where can you grow your portfolio, make higher rental returns, and achieve a lucrative profit?

Even in highly desirable locations, there is always the potential for a particular type of property to drop in demand. Of course, if you’re a local to Chichester, you’ll know that student accommodation for the university is a crucial rental property market.

Likewise, in any of our elegant villages, such as Arundel or Bosham, you’ll appreciate the demand for family homes and quality residences for professionals.

However, does that mean you have to accept a period of zero rental income over the university holidays? Or that you can expect to experience property vacancies when the economy hits a stumbling block?

Diversifying is an intelligent way to hedge your bets, spread your properties, and invest in a range of homes catering to different tenants to protect against any future market slumps.

There are lots of ways to diversify; you might consider:

• Investing in similar properties that you are comfortable with – such as professional apartments, student flats, or semi-detached family homes – but opt for properties in different locations.
• Choosing a range of property types perhaps in a similar location, with various accommodation sizes, public transport links and garden space.
• Targeting a specific market niche and selecting rental homes that fall within your chosen target tenant area potentially spread across West Sussex.

In short, if you can expand your horizons to consider alternative locations or properties, you minimise any risk of loss and have a blended portfolio of rental properties counter-balancing each other to provide regular, dependable income.

That could mean having several rental homes in a variety of locations, each marketed to a different type of tenant. The risk factor is substantially lower, since any economic or local changes that impact demand for rental properties isn’t going to have an adverse effect on all of your investment homes.

Challenges of Managing a Property From a Distance

For many landlords, the concept of investing in different styles and types of properties in alternative West Sussex locations is a massively appealing prospect.

However, there are many associated concerns:

• Needing to be on hand to respond to tenant problems.
• Costs to travel across the county to visit rented properties.
• Not being able to budget for the additional time pressure.
• Lack of familiarity with rental prices or tenant requirements in other towns.

Tenants can require access to their landlord 24/7, and rightly so will need urgent help if they have an emergency maintenance problem or their boiler cuts out in the depths of winter!

This is often the main limiting factor for professional landlords who can see the opportunity of diversifying their rental properties and achieving higher levels of income but don’t want to spread themselves so thin that they lose that essential tenant relationship.

Here’s how we can help!

Professional Property Management Services in West Sussex

Remote lettings are growing substantially in popularity. In some cases, that is due to experienced landlords seeing the diversification opportunity and wanting a trusted lettings agent to manage the heavy lifting on their behalf.

Using a lettings service is primarily about convenience for other landlords – often after one too many emergency phone calls in the early hours or when taking a hard-earned break.

Tod Anstee is proud to deliver a comprehensive lettings management service, with a range of packages designed to allow our landlords complete control over how they deal with their tenancies and where responsibility lies for collecting rent and retaining deposits.

Options include:

• Comprehensive lettings services – Appointing the Tod Anstee team to deal with property inspections, tenant screening, collecting rent, arranging all maintenance and preparing any rental increases.
• Marketing services for rental properties – Consulting with us to organise tenant appointment processes to ensure an empty property doesn’t remain vacant. That involves marketing your rental property to the right audience and vetting every prospective tenant on your behalf.

The key is to ensure you can offer your tenants the same dedicated landlord communications without being restricted to properties in your immediate local area.

Take a look to find out more about our Residential Property Management services and how we can work with you to identify outstanding rental property opportunities without the time or legwork required.

Suppose you’re interested in diversifying your property portfolio and would like to know more about which areas are growing in demand. In that case, our team is also always on hand to help and provide expert, independent market guidance.

Lastly, for more information about letting a West Sussex property, what to expect from the process, and expert tips for a successful tenancy, we offer a free Guide to Letting Your Property to ensure you are equipped with all the essential information.