There has been a surge in the use of floor plans in rental property listings, according to Metropix, a major supplier of floor plan based products to the residential estate agency market.

The figures, which have been gathered via Mouseprice, reveal growth of 182 per cent across a three-year period. In June 2012 just 5.71 per cent of properties listed included a floor plan, while the figure in June 2015 had risen almost threefold to 16.08 per cent.

These findings were further supported in recent research among sellers and landlords by Rightmove, in which 43 per cent of landlords said that they would not instruct an agent if they did not provide a floor plan. Furthermore, the same research revealed that many tenants rank the ability to view floor plans as a priority.

Rightmove report that many tenants rank the ability to view floor plans as more important than main image and summary text and second only to a selection of images for the property.

Brian Farrell (left), Director of Metropix, said: “The Rightmove research tells us that tenants might completely ignore a property without a floor plan so I am not altogether surprised that we have seen such a strong level of growth in the use of floor plans in the rental market. After all the need to view the individual layout of a property, often for purely practical reasons such as furniture layout, is equally important for a tenant as it is a purchaser.”

“From the commercial perspective, the lettings business is highly competitive and a marketing tool such as a floor plan that strengthens an agent’s offering by making the property more visually appealing to tenants and landlords is crucial, therefore I fully expect this growth to continue on an upward trajectory,” he added.

South East-based Romansis among the many agents that now use floor plans to market their rental properties, with the firm’s Managing Director, Peter Fuller, identifying floor plans as a forming an “important” part in the way Romans “market and present a property to landlords and tenants.”

He commented, “While the Metropix findings show floor plan usage in the rental market has grown substantially, in our experience providing a floor plan is standard practice for rental properties and is equally important as providing good quality images so I can’t think of too many reasons why an agent would opt not to provide one.

“After all floor plans have been commonplace in the sale of properties for years so why should rental be any different when tenants still have all of the same requirements.”