Using technology can cut this expense, says maintenance solution provider
Maintenance in the UK rental sector totalled almost £30 billion a year, research from property maintenance solution provider Help me Fix has found.
Across the UK, there are 10.6 million rental homes, and of that number, the split between private and social enterprises is roughly 50-50. There are around 5.6 million privately rented properties while the number of socially rented homes is 5 million.
According to Help me Fix, the general rule of thumb is that the cost of maintaining a property each year is roughly 1% of the property’s value. With the current average house price hitting £278,436, this means annual maintenance costs total £2,784 per property for private and social landlords and management companies.
Apply this to total rental stock and the current annual maintenance cost for the UK rental market is £29.7 billion a year – £15.6 billion for private stock and £14.1 billion for social stock.
On a regional level, London is home to by far the biggest rental market and, as a result, has the largest annual rental maintenance bill at £9.7 billion.
Read more: What’s driving London’s recent rental growth?
In the South East, annual rental market maintenance costs total £4.8 billion, with the East of England (£3.1 billion), the South West (£2.7 billion) and the North West (£2.4 billion) also home to some of the largest annual maintenance bills in the UK rental market.
“Ongoing maintenance can be a sizeable outgoing when it comes to managing a rental property, but it’s also a necessity and ensures that the accommodation provided to private and social residents is fit for purpose and above board,” Ettan Bazil, founder of Help me Fix, commented.
“Not only is the monetary total enormous, but the time and effort that is being spent completing these works is also a full-time commitment, particularly for management companies who are responsible for a large number of rental homes.”
Fortunately, Bazil pointed out, existing technology can now change old-fashioned and laborious maintenance methods.
“By allowing landlords and property managers the ability to consult, assess and advise residents on their maintenance issues via a trained professional, but in a digital capacity first, we’ve been able to dramatically reduce unnecessary expenditure and labour hours, halving annual maintenance costs in the process,” he said.
“Applied to the social sector alone, that’s a saving of £7 billion per year should this approach be adopted on a sector wide basis, raising resident living standards in the process, not sacrificing them,” Bazil added.
