Void periods are a landlord’s worst nightmare. A rental void is that awkward period when a tenant moves out and there is nobody to take their place. Having a property empty for a month is not such a bad thing if it needs a makeover or there are some seriously messy jobs to be done. But when one-month rolls into two months, and so on, it will hit you where it hurts: in your pocket.
Airbnb Short-Term Lets
An increasing number of landlords are using short-term letting websites such as Airbnb to plug the gaps in a tenancy. Research carried out by the Residential Landlord Association has revealed that the number of buy-to-let landlords using Airbnb shot up by 54% between 2016 and 2016.
Boosting Rental Yields
When you do the maths, it isn’t difficult to see why many landlords are opting to let out their properties on sites like Airbnb. A one-bed flat in London can easily attract £100 per night from eager travellers; and even more, if it is well-located near popular attractions. The same flat would earn a landlord around £1700 per month, so there is more profit to be made via short-term lets and the property doesn’t need to be occupied all month.
It is precisely this flexibility that makes short-term lets such a convenient way to fill voids. So if you have an empty property in a scenic part of the country, list it on Airbnb to make up the shortfall.
