Void Periods Improving

Void periods are dreaded by all landlords. It is part of the nature of the business that occasionally you are going to suffer them but if they drag on and get out of hand they have the potential to seriously damage your financial position. It is with a great sense of relief that landlords greeted the news this week that figures show that average void periods are slowly improving in the UK.

There is no call yet to get too excited as void periods are still higher than we would like but are improving. The numbers for the national landlord’s association are encouraging. In March 2010 around 52% of landlords had experienced voids in the previous 12 month period, down from 55% in the last three months of 2009. There was also a fall in the average duration of voids from 19 days to 17 days.This is all good stuff and we can only hope that the trends continue. All signs seem to indicate that it will with many still claiming strongly that housing is going to become a scarce commodity in the near future. Of course none of us want to see a crisis but enough people to fill our properties would be great.