Deposit alternative specialists, flatfair, reported a 30% year-on-year increase in No Deposit tenancies in May. And 14% more landlords are using their No Deposit product compared to the same time last year.
Throughout the month, the company says the average flatfair tenant saved £1,243 on their up-front moving costs at a time when rent prices (and, therefore, traditional deposits) continued to rise.
Instead of the traditional deposit of up to 5 weeks’ rent, flatfair charges a fee of a week’s rent plus VAT.
Gary Wright (main picture), Chief Executive officer of flatfair, says: “At a time when tenants continue to suffer financial hardship because of the cost of living crisis, this considerable saving on upfront moving costs is proving increasingly popular to tenants and to letting agents.”
TIME SAVINGS
“A letting agent recently processed 170 student tenancies using flatfair Deposits. By offering our deposit alternative alongside the traditional system, their students had the option to save hundreds of pounds on their upfront move-in costs.
“At the same time, the agent benefited from significant time savings in administration tasks and improved compliance.
“With traditional deposits, agents face the risk of manual errors and missed deadlines during registration and reconciliation – potentially costing up to three times the deposit amount. When managing numerous deposits simultaneously, these risks and the administrative burden increase significantly.
“flatfair Deposits automates the registration process, collecting deposits via open banking and instantly lodging them with the agents’ preferred deposit provider.
“This saves the agent considerable time and reduces errors – especially when processing multiple tenancies.”
Hard-pressed renters
According to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme’s, 2023 National Student Accommodation Survey,
Students are increasingly moving into the Private Rented Sector because of the higher cost of living in university halls of residence.
Wright adds: “Over the next few months, hundreds of thousands of students across the country will be on the move before the start of the new academic year.
“Rented homes are in short supply and this sudden mass movement puts huge pressure on the system in university towns all over Britain. Most of these hard-pressed renters will be wanting to keep their moving costs as low as possible and the agents they deal with will want to process their tenancies as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
“Until the supply of rented accommodation can be significantly increased, the solution we offer is an automated service which eases the burden on agents and massively cuts the upfront move-in costs for the tenants.”
