Landlords contribute £3.61bn annually into local economies

Aldermore’s new buy to let research², surveying 1,000 UK-based landlords, highlights the important contribution landlords make to their local economy with eight in ten (81%) turning to a local tradesperson when their property requires work or renovation. Landlords spent on average £1,443 in the last 12 months on services such as plumbers, builders, letting agents and other tradespeople, and all hired from the local community for most of their requirements.

Of the total amount paid to local service providers, landlords spent the most on letting agents coming to £879m in the past twelve months, followed by £442m on general handy-workers and £396m on plumbers. Also, landlords spent £375.4m on electricians, £377.3m on builders, and £243.2m on cleaners.

• There are 2.5m landlords¹ currently operating in the UK, and new research from Aldermore Bank has found they have spent on average £1,443 using local tradesmen in the last 12 months
• This means £3.61bn is being injected into local businesses across the UK every year from landlords
• Four in five (81%) landlords use local tradespeople to maintain their rental properties
• 90% of landlords say they will continue using or increase the amount they use local services in 2020
• Trust and supporting their community are the main reasons why they use local

Using local provides peace of mind for landlords

Over a third (39%) say trust is the main reason why they turn to someone local, while one quarter (26%) say, due to not living close to their rental property, having local people do maintenance is reassuring to them. Furthermore, one in three (31%) want to support their local economy by using local tradespeople and one in four (24%) say they tend to be cheaper to alternatives which helps keep their business costs down.

The report found that landlords are happy with the services local tradespeople provide and two thirds (65%) will continue to use them, with a further quarter (25%) intending to use them even more in the future. Only 7% of landlords say they haven’t used local services for their properties, mainly due to being able to do the jobs themselves or having a family member who can service the property.

Damian Thompson, Group Managing Director of Retail Finance at Aldermore, said: “Landlords are an integral part of local communities across the UK, providing investment and fulfilling the demand of the expanding Private Rented Sector. Around every landlord is an ecosystem, in which they pay local tradespeople, like plumbers, builders, decorators, for jobs and those companies in turn train up employees and pay their own local suppliers for services also. The contribution landlords make to local communities extends much wider than merely providing rental accommodation.

“Our findings show supporting local economies also brings benefits to landlords own businesses. Local workers bring a lot of value to landlords with respondents to our survey citing in particular the quality work, cost effectiveness and the understanding of local areas as key benefits.”

Table 1: landlord expenditure on local services the past 12 months

¹ Based on HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) data acquired by London estate agent ludlowthompson following a Freedom of Information request.
² Research conducted by Opinium on behalf of Aldermore in Q4 2019, with a sample of 1,000 UK landlords

Share This Article