Where is the housing market headed after this unexpected crisis?

There has been a lot of confusion and uncertainty around the world in the past few months. When the state of emergency was declared in many countries at the beginning of March 2020, there were significant changes both in the real estate market and in many other areas of life. For the real estate market, the most important changes were the shift from short-term to long-term leases. This will also have influenced the rental market in the long term.

3 reasons why the situation is improving

There is hope that the Covid-19 crisis is coming to an end and that life will return to normal. This positive change can also be seen in the housing market. For example, significantly more tenants are actively looking for rental apartments compared to March and April 2020, which can be seen in the increased demand. But here the question arises: what is the reason for this increase? Is it because of the current crisis or have people become more cautious about spending and have therefore postponed buying real estate?

1) Home Office – in the past few months, many people have had to work from home. Although the situation is slowly improving, many employees still want to continue working from home. This, in turn, has led to increased demand for larger apartments to transform a room into a workplace. Looking at the statistics of our Bidrento platform, we noticed that before the crisis the greatest demand was for 2-bedroom rental apartments, but now there is an increased interest in 3 and 4-bedroom apartments.

2) Bank Loans – banks have become more reluctant to lend. As a result, fewer and fewer people have the option of getting a bank loan to buy their own house or apartment. That is why they have to continue to live in rental apartments.

3) Return to everyday life before the crisis – people are gradually returning to work and thus everyday life is slowly returning. Therefore, those with a steady or stable income are looking for apartments again. Unfortunately, this does not apply to everyone, as there have been many layoffs in recent months and unemployment has risen sharply as a result.

The outlook

The outlook for the rental market in the coming summer looks good. Due to the relaxation of the Covid-19 restrictions, it will soon be possible to travel to certain countries. As a result, the rental market can be expected to recover. It is very gratifying to see that many people have made a voluntary decision to help domestic tourism get back on its feet. It is, therefore, to be expected that the rental market will recover again in the short term during the summer period.

In the long run, it’s harder to make a statement. In the next 2-3 months we are unlikely to see any drastic changes and beyond that, no one can predict exactly what will happen in autumn, as the situation is constantly changing. Supply and demand can change within a week, making an accurate forecast impossible.

The crisis has affected the lives of many students who stay in their home country instead of studying or studying abroad. However, the reasons already mentioned lead us to believe that the rental market for longer-term rentals will recover in autumn. We have noticed an increased interest from young people lately. For example, we received inquiries from some students about when it would be the right time to look for an apartment. Many of these requests are concentrated in late August or early September.

Background check

During the crisis, we noticed an increased use of the background check of the tenants in our Bidrento software. Landlords have started to more actively control tenant payment defaults to ensure that the tenant is able to pay the rent. In the Bidrento software, landlords can check potential tenants payment default history with just one click.

Tools for the landlord: technology, technology and technology again!

At Bidrento, we offer landlords tools that can be used to optimize their business processes and save both money and time. From quick and convenient tenants onboarding to Bidrento`s property management software designed specifically for the landlords, property managers and letting agents. Bidrento is a cloud-based program that helps rental property owners or their managers manage rental properties many times more efficiently than filling out Excel spreadsheets.

Bidrento software not only saves time and money, but also simplifies day-to-day tasks related to rental property management. It allows you to easily and conveniently take care of rent management, invoicing, payment delays, contracts, reports and much more. The software also offers automated utility billing, which usually takes a lot of time for the landlords. The software can also be conveniently used via computer, tablet or mobile phone. More information about Bidrento property management software can be found here: www.bidrento.com

Last but not least, given the current situation, we want to pay as much attention as possible to digital solutions for the landlords, specifically to the optimization of work processes, and we want to be available to them with both technology and advice. So if any landlord is thinking about how to make the management of rental real estate more efficient and win both in terms of time and money, feel free to contact us and we will solve it together.

I am happy to share my contact with you: Bidrento Co-Founder and CEO – Taavo Annus, taavo.annus@bidrento.com