Improving HMO Properties: Forecasts on Tenant Preferences in 2024

If you are an existing HMO landlord or considering entering the HMO market for the first time, you will be asking what 2024 might hold. What trends and shifts are we likely to see in tenant preferences and how should you adapt your HMO property and strategy to optimise for their changing needs?

The Move To En-Suite

HMO tenants will continue to prefer properties that have ensuite bathrooms rather than separate facilities. This trend became evident during the pandemic but is now becoming entrenched as renters look for the extra convenience and privacy that ensuites provide.

If you are just starting on your journey as an HMO landlord then ensuite rooms should be part of your initial planning and design. If you already let out an HMO property then it’s worth considering how you can integrate ensuite facilities into your existing space to widen its appeal.

Is Your Broadband Up to Speed?

The multiple tenants within your HMO will place heavy demands on your broadband connection, especially if they are also working from home. Are your broadband facilities sufficient for the needs of the HMO tenants that you are looking to attract? Renegotiating with your provider could lower the package price for you and increase the speed and reliability of your connection for your tenants.

The Co-Living Trend

While HMOs continue to be popular, they are defined as three or more unrelated people living in a house with minimal alteration. Depending on the layout of your property, such as whether it includes self-contained bedsits, this could mean little interaction between tenants.

While this could be perfect for some, there is also a growing co-living trend where more of a sense of community is created. In this case, properties are designed or modified to create a space that inspires this community feel. It may be worth investigating whether your prospective or existing HMO tenants want this sense of community, especially as it’s a growing trend amongst students and millennials. 

Ensuring Wellbeing Through Good Design

As the desire for a sense of community has increased since the pandemic so too has the desire for wellbeing. Tenants want to live somewhere that instils a sense of calm with good interior flows, warm and welcoming spaces and good quality furniture and fittings. Your design briefs should be based on meeting these wellbeing goals, even if it’s just rethinking how you optimise space or create more of a sense of affordable luxury within your HMO property, especially where you might be looking to attract professionals as tenants.

The Right Tenant and Landlord Relationship

Finding the right tenant will also continue to be important. HMO tenants by their nature are transient and more likely to move on, so searching for them on the right channels is important. So too is offering them the flexibility they want. At Progressive Lets, we use specialised sites such as Spare Room and social media channels to advertise space, offer shorter tenancies to allow us to find tenants more quickly and ask for smaller bonds to reduce moving-in costs.  

We Can Help

At Progressive Lets we are experts in the rental market in the Peterborough area and help landlords find and manage properties within a 50-mile radius. We manage HMOs all over the Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire areas and also offer HMO management services, closely managing rental accounts and maintenance issues at competitive rates. Get in touch to find out more.