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Advantages of Letting to Postgraduates over Undergraduates

Firstly, if you are a newcomer to the world of BTL for the student market, congratulations – you are about to embark on a lucrative and interesting career as a property owner. It is likely you have already thought about which types of student you will try to attract – undergraduate, postgraduates, international students or mature students / families. There are advantages to renting to postgraduates rather than undergraduates, and ways you can maximise your appeal to this student demographic.

 

More Responsible Tenants

With undergraduates there tend to be more complaints from neighbours about noise late at night. You are less likely to experience damage and generally find they are far closer to being model tenants than undergraduates. They have already lived through the party lifestyle and have grown up in those three years as an undergraduates. Postgraduate degrees are hard and not for slackers; that means your applicants will want to be there.

 

Attitude Closer to Private Renters

Their requirements are more likely to mirror those of private renters. That means they will have more respect for you, your property and the neighbourhood as already explained. It also means they will respond more favourably to your requests and will be more amenable to most (reasonable) things you ask of them. It also means that their standards will be higher so if you want to appeal to postgrads, you should consider offering a bit more to your property.

 

Where Your Property is Smaller

The student property market can reasonably be called “saturated” at the moment, especially in light of universities expanding their own property portfolios to cater for more students, not just first years. Competition is hard. However, if you have a smaller property, it may be an advantage for you to focus on postgraduates. Think of this type of student as a group of people who work from home. The less cramped the space is and more peace they have, the better for them.

 

Where Your Property is A Little Farther Away

There is a greater advantage to you in appealing to postgraduates when your property is a little farther away from local amenities such as the town centre, bars and clubs. This may work against you renting to undergraduates, but the required peaceful nature of post-graduates means that this can work in your favour. Increasingly, universities are building properties closer to the university and transport links. This is not ideal for postgraduates who want a more sedate area in which to live.

 

We cannot really generalise about students – there are good and bad examples in every group. Students are seen as a great choice for tenants; postgraduates are an even better choice as they allow you to experience something closer to private tenants.