How do you boost your rental income? Easy! Take a strategic approach to property upgrades and watch the vacancy rate fall and the rental income rise.
Attracting high quality tenants and maximising your property’s rental return is all about making the right improvements. They don’t have to be costly; they just need to address the needs and wants of good tenants and enhance the property’s visual appeal and liveability.
Street Appeal and Outdoor Living:
- Enhance the property’s street appeal with a well-kept front garden, a clean and tidy entry porch and letterbox, and effective outdoor lighting.
- Provide undercover off-street parking, especially in high-density areas. If you can add a carport or garage, create off-street parking, or erect a shed for bicycle storage, tenants will pay more for the convenience.
Adelaide’s best rental properties provide tenants with inviting outdoor living spaces where they can relax and entertain. Adding a pergola or shade sail to a rental property with no undercover outdoor area is an opportunity to charge higher rent.
Interior Enhancements:
- If full kitchen and bathroom renovations aren’t in your budget, you can improve the look and functionality of both with simple improvements. Replacing bathroom tapware, showerheads and vanities can make a huge difference, and if retiling isn’t an option, try regrouting and tile paint to freshen the look.
- Fresh paint, new tapware and replacing cupboard doors and/or handles will brighten any kitchen, while upgrading outdated appliances will modernise the space and gain the appreciation of new tenants.
- Flooring has a big impact on a property’s visual appeal. Replace worn or stained floors with hardwearing flooring such as laminate floating floors and tenants will see an inviting prospective home with easy-care flooring.
- Replacing original light fittings with cost effective LED downlights will incur an expense, but it will also create a brighter ambience with contemporary appeal and long-term power savings, which is attractive to tenants.
- Storage solutions are as important to your tenants as they are to you. Add built-in wardrobes to bedrooms and install overhead cupboards in the kitchen, bathroom and laundry. Prospective tenants will see it as a big plus and expect to pay more than they would for a property with limited storage.
Security Features:
- Tenants want to feel safe and secure in their home and reduce the cost of their content insurance if possible. Can you increase the appeal of your property by adding security screen doors, window locks, or sensor lighting?
- Dogs may provide security for tenants, protecting both the occupants and their contents from potential home invasions. Making your property pet-friendly (with documented conditions to protect your asset) provides you with a larger pool of prospective tenants, with pet owners paying a premium. Pet-friendly measures include secure fencing, pet access doors, cat runs, shaded outdoor areas and scratch-proof flooring.
Upgrading Through Property Management Services:
While you do pay a fee for property management services, professional property managers such as the high-performing team at Boffo Real Estate can increase your return on investment in several ways:
- Uninformed landlords can be heavily fined for failing to comply with changing regulations.
- Choosing the right tenant through expert tenant selection processes.
- Rent guaranteed to be set at the current market rate, not below.
- Reduced vacancy rates through hands-on tenant relationship management.
- Regular rent reviews and adjustments in line with market conditions.
Getting the most out of your investment property means making it as desirable as possible, because high price is driven by high demand. These small changes will help you to create the sort of investment property that every good tenant wants to rent.
If you think there are ways our property management team can help you to increase your rental income, get in touch! The kettle is on, it’s warm inside, and we’re always happy to chat!
