Episode 10: The latest on student lets
With more than 10% of landlords letting to students, in this month’s episode of Listen Up Landlords, we take a look at what’s going on in the land of student lets. Presenters NRLA CEO Ben Beadle (@BeadleBen) – a student landlord himself - and Richard Blanco (@richardblanco_) are joined by Victoria Tolmie-Loverseed, assistant chief executive at national student housing charity Unipol and Simon Thompson of website accommodationforstudents.com to discuss the latest news in the sector. They examine the trends in the market, levels of demand at universities across the country and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on landlords providing student homes. Elsewhere Catherine Behdad of the NRLA advice team talks about the hot topics on the phonelines throughout the month, including questions on the intricacies of student lets. Later in the show, student landlord Terry Samuel and agent Sally Hatcher, who specialises in letting to students, share their experiences – and the lessons they have learned over the years. If you enjoy the show, please spread the word on your social media channels using the hashtag #listenuplandlords. For all podcast enquiries email [email protected] ACCREDITATION: You can now pick up a CPD point to be used towards NRLA accreditation by listening to the podcast. To log your point, visit the accreditation dashboard in the ‘Your Account’ section of the NRLA website. Select ‘Other’ then ‘NRLA Podcast’ from the dropdown menu. More information To read a full transcript of the show click here. For more information regarding the new NRLA student landlord course click here. To attend our free letting to students webinar click here. Guest Biographies Victoria Tolmie-Loverseed – Assistant Chief Executive - Unipol Victoria leads on accreditation, training and governance at the national student housing charity Unipol Student Homes. She has worked in housing for 15 years, most of this time within the higher education sector and latterly as a non-executive director for two housing associations. She studied surveying at university, and is passionate about the potential for good housing to make life better. For more information on Unipol visit unipol.org.uk Simon Thompson – CEO Accommodationforstudents.com Simon set up website Accommodation For Students, one of the NRLA’s recognised suppliers to match students with and landlords when he was struggling to find somewhere to live as a student himself more than 20 years ago. There are now 35,000 landlords on the site along with 1,000 student letting agencies and a million students looking for somewhere to live. Visit https://www.accommodationforstudents.com/ Terry Samuel – student landlord, Leamington Spa Terry Samuel is a retired teacher who lives in Devon. His daughter encouraged him to purchase his first student house for her to live in, whilst she was on a five-year university course. With his wife, he owns and manages six four-bedroom student properties in North Leamington Spa. Letting high quality, clean, safe and well-maintained student houses has been the key to developing their student business for the last 20 years. Terry is an active member of Warwick District Council’s Landlord Steering Group, who organise local Landlord Forums in association with the NRLA. For more information visit: www.spaletting.moonfruit.com Sally Hatcher Sally’s career in lettings spans over 25 years dealing with student and professional lettings in Canterbury. Sally Hatcher Estates is a family-run business and Sally is also South East area representative for Propertymark. Visit www.sallyhatcher.co.uk for more information.