The craziness of Darlington’s lettings market

Posted on 11th August 2021

Venture Lettings Manager Matthew Laverick-Elliott has worked in the industry for over a decade and during that time he's never experienced the rental market to be as competitive as it currently is. In this blog, Matthew discusses his thoughts on the market and shares his advice to landlords and renters. 

Pre-Covid, we generally worked on the assumption that there were anywhere from 300 to 350 rental properties available in the town at any one time. Since we re-opened in May 2020, that has gone down as low as 60 and, at the time of writing, currently stands at 74.

The demand is still there, though. A combination of people wanting a change after the misery of three lockdowns, employees moving to the town with work (Amazon and the NHS in particular) and vendors who have sold their properties but have nowhere else to go, have all contributed to a highly active pool of prospective tenants.

The supply and demand problem has pushed rental prices up, after having largely remained static in the town for the past 10 years or so, while tenants are so desperate to secure their next home that viewings alone are now highly sought after.

In our experience, a desirable property will be fully booked up with viewings within a couple of hours of appearing online, meaning anyone who enquires after that will be placed on a reserve list – which highlights the craziness of Darlington’s letting market in these times.

My advice to anyone looking for a rental property is to firstly call and sign up to our mailing list. This means you’ll get an email notification as soon as a property goes live on the market. You should then call the office as soon as you receive the email, if you can, to avoid missing out.

If you secure a viewing and you’re interested in proceeding further, at the moment you’re likely to find that your application will be considered amongst several from competing tenants, so do your very best to make your application as strong as possible. Landlords will be looking at credit history, salaries and income, landlord references and the strength of any guarantors you can provide.

For any landlords wondering whether or not it’s a good time to purchase a buy-to-let or re-list their current property, I have to emphatically say that yes, it really is. In fact, there’s never been a better time in all the years I’ve worked in the industry. What’s more, you’ll probably get more rent for your property than you initially thought.

Any investors out there, get in touch with our sales team. We have a dedicated mailing list tailor-made for you to ensure you get suitable properties emailed over as soon as they come to the market.

So, whether you’re a tenant, landlord or soon-to-be landlord, give our office a call on 01325 363858. Now really is the time to make that move.