More letting agencies asking larger-salary renters to provide guarantor
Tenants earning above £25K asked to supply a guarantor in increasing numbers, says director of insurance at Goodlord.
Tenants on salaries above £25K are being asked to provide a guarantor in growing numbers, new figures show.
Tenant referencing firm Goodlord analysed more than 220,000 tenancies taken out between January 2020 and June this year.
The data reveals a steady increase in requests for guarantors from renters who earn between £25,000 and £75,000.
Far higher
In 2020, just 3.7% of tenants earning salaries of £25,000-£50,000 were asked to provide a guarantor by their letting agents or landlord.
However, in 2023 to date, this has risen to an average of 5.84% – an increase of 58% compared to 2020 figures.
This means requests for guarantors are now far higher than even at the peak of the Covid pandemic.
Rising again
There has also been an increase in the number of tenants earning between £50,000 and £75,000 each year being asked to provide guarantors, despite salaries in this range being much higher than national averages.
In 2020, just 1.35% of earners in this bracket were required to secure their tenancy with a guarantor. In 2021, this rose to 1.41%, before going up again in 2022 to 1.92%.
However, in 2023 to date, the average number of tenants commanding salaries over £50,000 being asked to provide a guarantor, is now 2.59%.
Despite still being a very small percentage of renters in this income bracket, this represents a 92% increase on 2020 levels.
It’s a far from ideal situation for either tenants or landlords.”
Oli Sherlock, (main picture), director of insurance at Goodlord, says: “As well as a rise in the number of tenants who find themselves needing to provide a guarantor, we’ve also seen a big increase in landlords taking out rental insurance.
“It’s a far from ideal situation for either tenants or landlords. The Government should see this as an additional sign that more support for the rental market is urgently needed.”
