How long do tenants stick around?

If you've bought an investment property and want to handle the landlord duties yourself, there's a lot to take in. From managing rent to lodging bond to ensuring repairs are carried out, you'll have a lot of responsibilities! However, form a healthy relationship with carefully selected tenants and it can go off more or less without a hitch.

But how long will tenants stay at your property? While leases might only last a year, often a good renter-landlord relationship can result in a renewal, and none of the stress of picking new people to move in.

Thanks to new research from Barfoot and Thompson, we've got a bit more insight into how long tenants tend to shack up in a single rental property.

And the tenancy length is...

Two years, give or take a month. Across nearly 13,000 rental properties that the real estate agency manages, they found the average tenancy period was 24 months, as of November 2015. Of course, it differs depending on where you are:

• Inner-city properties had average tenancy length of about 17 months
• Fringe suburbs like the North Shore had longer lengths, at 25 to 26 months

Kiri Barfoot from the company noted that they even have tenancies that last as long as a quarter of a century. Working out what tenants want and matching their goals to yours as a landlord can yield an ongoing, profitable relationship for both parties! 

This means doing your research as a landlord as well. For example, Tenancy Services notes that the median rent for Avondale is $480, while in Remuera this is $600. The right research and financial advice can see you turn a property investment into a lasting source of cash flow with hardly any stress at all!

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