HMO Investing Do's & Don'ts - Day 2
Do provide ensuite bedrooms. You’ll fill rooms faster and keep HMO tenants longer.
Wherever possible provide ensuite HMO bedrooms. They are always requested by tenants and are the first rooms reserved as (professional) tenants value the benefit of a private bathroom.
Building an ensuite in the North West costs circa £2500 and it will give that bedroom a rental uplift in that area of £50-100 per month. Tenants are happy paying more for ensuite rooms. Fact.
A caveat to this rule. If adding an ensuite means that the bedroom space will be severely compromised, don’t do it! If there isn’t enough room in the bedroom we will add an off-suite (a private or shared bathroom outside the tenant’s bedroom) elsewhere in the HMO.
Word of warning!
The council will not include the ensuite space when they calculate your room sizes for the HMO licence as an ensuite is not deemed liveable space.
What’s the ideal bedroom size for an ensuite?
Register for our free guide below to find out what size a bedroom needs to be to comfortably fit an ensuite without sacrificing the liveable bedroom space.
Don’t cram in bedrooms. It's a false economy.
Why is it a false economy? You put an extra bedroom into your deal analyser. BOOM. Your ROI jumps right up. Suddenly the deal looks very attractive. Don’t be fooled by the numbers as there is always a sacrifice.
You’ve either had to sacrifice communal space or ensuites to fit in the extra bedroom so you're now providing a product of lesser quality than the local competition.
With the HMO market being more competitive than ever, tenants have a lot of options to choose from. HMO tenants do their research and they understand what is good value for money. Professionals don’t like sharing a bathroom with more than one other person and they’ve seen enough HMOs to know what a good size bedroom looks like.
A compromised product in a competitive HMO market will get left behind.
You will struggle to fill rooms and your tenants won’t stick around for long when they realise they can get better value for their money in another HMO down the road. Empty rooms and consistent voids will mean your HMO performs worse than it would’ve done if you hadn’t added in the extra bedroom.
How many HMOs do you see sitting empty on Spareroom month after month?
Sadly we see this all too often. Those voids are hurting the landlord. Unfortunately, that's what happens when you offer an HMO full of 7 or 8 sqm bedrooms with barely any communal space. If you wouldn’t be happy living in the space you're providing, chances are tenants won’t be happy either.
Do you want to know the communal and bedroom sizes of a Maygreen 6 bed HMO? Register below to receive the guide and use it when sizing up your next HMO.
What to expect on Day 3 HMO Investing Do's & Don'ts
In tomorrow’s blog we focus on the tenant experience and why it should be on the top of your priority list. We share with you insights from our tenant care strategy. We’ll also explore why working with a builder without HMO experience will be a detriment to your project and should be avoided.