Landlord Guide: Renting To Students
When students arrive in your town, they’re ready to learn and eager to sign a lease — but do they make good tenants? We’re liv.rent, Canada’s best all-in-one solution for landlords and renters to have a smoother rental process, and we created this guide to help landlords understand the benefits and drawbacks of renting to students.
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Is renting to students a good idea?
For many, the idea of renting out your home or apartment to students sounds alarm bells. It really shouldn’t. These tenants can often prove to be excellent – reliable, tidy, and, financially secured by their parents. In fact, having parents as guarantors on a lease, which is the usual case in student situations, is often far more sound than leases with other tenants.
We encourage property managers and homeowners to overlook negative stereotypes and consider student applicants. The vast majority are committed to sharpening their adulting skills which include behaving accordingly and respectfully.
Additionally, by using liv.rent you can safely provide a home to an international student coming to Canada for the first time ever. So not only do you get a fantastic renter, but you’re also doing your part to assist newcomers to Canada.
Pros of renting to students
- Steady demand – If your rental property is near a post-secondary institution, there will be a guaranteed demand for your rental every year with new candidates regularly.
- Higher rent – There’s a potential for higher rent in a multi-bedroom rental as rent is divided between students. If the location is right, demand will always be high and thus, higher rents are justified.
- Third-party payment – Oftentimes students have their families pay rent or assist them with rental payments; thereby, ensuring that you will receive your payments on time.
- Word of mouth fills vacancies – Very little advertising is required as students use word of mouth to fill empty spots once they vacate.
- Low maintenance – Since it’s more likely for students to be first-time renters, they tend to be more low-maintenance compared to other tenants.
Cons of renting to students
- Frequent turnover – There might be an annual turnover. However, if the arrangement is working for them, they may stay for up to 4 years or longer.
- Lack of history & references – It can be harder to screen student renters as they have little to no work or rental history.
- Inexperienced at property maintenance – Students are often less familiar with taking care of a home since it’s their first time living on their own.
Tips for renting to students
Once you’ve weighed the pros and cons of renting to students, and you decide that they’re suitable tenants for you, then here are our best tips for renting to students:
1. Use liv.rent
Use our Suggested Tenants feature to connect with prospective students looking to rent. This feature provides you a basic profile overview of their Renter Resume, which includes their:
• Name
• Occupation (in this case student)
• Salary Range
• Rental Budget
You can also create and manage your listings on liv.rent and share your listing links to the student-specific sites above, in addition to posting directly from the liv.rent app to Craigslist and Kijiji saving you time and energy.
2. Join student housing Facebook Groups
Join & post on Facebook Groups dedicated to student housing, here are a few groups geared towards various post-secondary institutions in Canada:
Read more: Toronto’s 9 Best Apartment Rental Websites
3. Use University housing websites
Reach out to the department of off-campus housing and ask to be featured on their housing micro-sites. Keep in mind, not all institutions offer this, but here are a couple that do:
4. List at the Right Time
Post-secondary school schedules are typically separated into three semesters:
- Spring (January to April)
- Summer (May to June, July to August, or May to August)
- Fall (September to December)
The busiest semester is Fall, students will be looking to secure housing in March/April. If your preferred lease term is September to September, you will want to attract these students by indicating a September 1 move-in date, especially in competitive markets like Toronto and Vancouver.
5. Consider Sub-letting
Many students will vacate their rental property during summer months. A property is more attractive to students if sub-letting is permitted. It helps them recoup some costs by renting their room out to students attending summer session for example. Otherwise, they (or their parents) are paying for three to four months when the rental is empty.
6. Flexible Lease Terms
Consider flexible lease terms of nine months, for example September to May to avoid the summer semester. (Tip: It is not necessary to offer a sub-letting option for leases with this type of duration.) They would only be paying for the months they occupy the property.
How to mitigate the risks of renting to students
Setting out rules and putting in lease addendums is the best way to make sure you and your student renter have a successful and stress-free tenancy.
- Have a thorough tenant-screening process — this is the best protection no matter who you’re renting to.
- Add occupancy addendums in the lease — Students might try to split costs with roommates to save money. But if your unit is only suitable for two or three people, then you should outline that in the lease.
- Get a student’s family on the lease as cosigners — This is especially important if the tenant is underage and/or has no verifiable income sources.
- Set out rules about excessive noise & quiet hours — in the lease, add a policy about excessive noise, and institute some quiet hours, for example, from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. to discourage tenants from having parties and being overly loud in the suite.
Use the liv.rent app to connect with prospective students looking to rent:
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