Lettings potential for unsold apartments

News Category: Industry News

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Apartments which have remained unsold following the impact of the credit crunch on the UK housing market could be used for lettings, it has been suggested.

A lot of recently built town and city centre apartments stand empty, but they could offer potential gains if landlords or letting agents can bring innovative ideas to the fore, said Charles Smailes, chairman on The National Federation of Property Professionals.

The residential market is "effectively on its knees", Mr Smailes said, but developers could turn to serviced apartments as an alternative.

Landlords would be unlikely to gain sufficient income through conventional letting on assured short-hold tenancies in the current economic climate, he said.

However, although improvements would depend on tenants' buying price, Mr Smailes added: "If you can increase your rental income and the net income of the project by doing service letting on a 60 to 80 per cent occupancy level, then you can see that it would work."

Unsold city centre departments worth around £4 million were placed into administration by property developers City Lofts in July, after the firm suffered from falling property prices in regional cities caused by the credit crunch.

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