A new home-sharing service has launched, allowing tenants to sub-let their homes in Airbnb-style – but passing on some of the financial benefit to the landlord.
Letting agents Lavanda says London landlords could benefit to the tune of a 10% uplift in rental yields.
The firm claims to be offering an innovative and fully compliant letting product.
While home sharing via platforms like Airbnb is a fast-growing activity, the drawback is that it has largely been conducted in breach of tenancy agreements, planning permission, mortgages and insurance policies.
Lavanda claims to get round this with a new form of lease, which entitles the tenant to sub-let for up to 90 days a year, while Lavanda itself manages the properties.
A portion of the sub-letting income is shared transparently with the landlord.
Lavanda can also provide the tenant with a hotel type of service in return for a monthly fee, which is also shared with the landlord.
Guy Westlake, CEO of Lavanda, said: “Our product taps into the way people want to live today, ultimately powering maximum yield to landlords and a more affordable rental proposition to tenants.
“Home sharing and serviced living are the new norms. It is time to embrace and professionalise this market, and we are excited to help the industry take its first steps in this direction.”
The business aims to capture 10% of the London lettings market within the next five years.
The company – which provides three core products, lettings, Airbnb management and serviced living – has a 30-strong team which includes ‘growth manager’ James Robotham, a former senior negotiator at Knight Frank.
With increased risks to the primary tenant, significant increase in insurance premiums, mortgagee consents etc and charges likely to be made to vary leases on flats (if indeed a freeholder would allow a variation to a lease potentially to the detriment of other leaseholders) I don’t see this as a starter except on freeholder properties. Today there are so many scammers out there the risks are all very significant. This is driven by greed and the one ingredient scammers target is the greedy. Very skeptical.
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