Student landlord - case studies

In my search of the media. I found these two case studies on student landlords in the Telegraph. A useful in sight if you are thinking of investing in a student rental property:

Case study 1 trust students to look after themselves and their home

"Students equal problems and a trashed house - that's what the general view is," says landlord and student letting agent Niall McTurk. "But in eight years of letting to thousands of students we have never had one thing deliberately broken. Far from trashing their houses, we find that the higher standard of house we give them, the better they look after it."

Mr McTurk owns a large number of properties in York with his wife Valerie, letting to 140 students and academic staff. But he also runs the city's biggest student letting agency, Sinclair Properties, managing more than 300 properties, including some of his own, let to 1,300 students.

"The big benefit of letting to students is the higher rent levels," says Mr McTurk. "This is mainly because, as long as there is a kitchen, a bathroom and a living room, every other room can be a bedroom.

"In York, a three-bedroom semi with two reception rooms would let to a family for £795 a month, but let it to four students and you might achieve £70 a week from each." This works out at £1,213 a month.

advertisement"Other bonuses are that tenancies usually run for a year, meaning there are no void periods, and you have a growing and captive market."

York has 17,000 students in higher education in five institutions, and a huge development by the University of York is forecast to add another 5,400 over the next 20 years.

The downside of student lets, however, is that the level of wear and tear is higher. "It's not because of abuse, but because having five adults in a house means the shower, kitchen, toilet and so on get much more use," says Mr McTurk.

Students are also surprisingly demanding, he finds. "If the washing machine breaks they want it fixed that day, so student properties generally need a higher level of maintenance. We also have occasional issues with students not looking after gardens or not putting the rubbish out, but that only accounts for maybe two or three calls from neighbours each year." Generally, says Mr McTurk, all the students need is the occasional gentle reminder.

Case study Making a virtue of necessity

Most parents helping to fund their child's university years have to cover a three or perhaps four-year course.

Gary and Karen Hynes are looking at seven years. "When Fraser told us he wanted to study architecture at Nottingham, we said, ‘Great'," says Mr Hynes, a 51-year-old photographer from Wirral.

"Then he told us the course was seven years and my jaw hit the ground."

Over seven years, rent alone could exceed £22,000. But like tens of thousands of other parents, the Hynes chose to make a virtue of necessity by purchasing a buy-to-let property for their son to live in. They are close to exchanging on a £115,000 four-bedroom house that 18-year-old Fraser, currently in his first year and living in halls, will share with three friends.

Recent mortgage market turmoil has added £100 a month to their costs, but this has not deterred the Hynes. "We worked out the rent by adding interest, maintenance costs, and purchase fees averaged over three years. We divided that by four. It came out in the middle of their price range, at £65 a week," says Mr Hynes.

"The other parents have peace of mind because they know the landlord has the right motives, and I get control over the area and property Fraser lives in."

The Hynes own another student buy-to-let in Sheffield, where daughter Carly, 21, lives. They plan to continue letting it after Carly graduates this summer.

"When you're a parent landlord, you need to tread a fine line between being friendly and being professional. Always have proper agreements," says Mr Hynes.