Hi guys, I wonder if any of you have ever used any type of incentives to attract tenants. I just bought a flat which I need to market at the top end of the rental band for the area (around £750 where everything else is around £700). I much rather make an attractive offer like 'Move-in in January don't pay rent until February' than lowering the rent. Two reasons for this: - it will give me a much better case when it comes to remortgage with a better rental income - putting rents up from a low start is a total nightmare! Any thoughts?

Hi Oscar, I like your idea as I have avoid on one of my BTLs at the moment,but when thinking it through this means that the tenants are paying rent in arears instead of advance. Wouldn't this give you a potential headache at the end of the tenancy? or are you thinking that the February payment is a double payment? Interested in your comments and any other incentives out there.

First month - rent free. Is that what you mean? If it means you get the property occupied rather than sitting empty for that month then it is worthwhile in my opinion. After all you only end up paying Council Tax, Water and other utilities if the property is empty. I might use it for a house that I have empty at the moment.

Thanks for your comments guys. That's exactly what I had in mind. I'm considering now a type of 'January-rent-free'. So if tenants move in on the first week of January they pretty much get the whole month free, etc. I haven't run this through the agent yet. I wonder what his reaction will be!

Rather than risk losing a months rent as income , If the condition or location of the property is not enough to gain the extra £50 I would consider offering as an incentive the fact that I will pay the council tax by doing so the tenant knows that they will be saving money and you could offset the council tax payment against your tax (i think ?!!)

An incentive, I use is to include a good Sky or NTL package, it costs around £35pm but seems to enable me to obtain around £50pm more for my flats than I would otherwise be able to. Also by boosting the rental agreement price it helps with releasing funds if you wish to remortage. A tip though don't include reference to it in your rental agreement, as propective lenders may strip out the cost of the TV package when assessing your rental income (Nat West did this). Regards Alan