Renting out your apartment or house isn’t an easily accomplished task as it may seem. It involves a lot of responsibility and strenuous work. Being a landlord, you are obliged to take care of every single thing for your house or property. Right from finding a tenant and maintaining your property to collecting the rent, you are accountable as an owner of the property. Amongst all, the decision of choosing the right tenant stays top in order to have a smooth tenancy.

If you are to choose between renting out your house to a single tenant or to multiple tenants on a shared basis, here are few things that let you decide the best option to rent out.

• Single Tenancy: A landlord letting out a house or apartment to rent to a single person or a family denotes single tenancy.
• Multi-Tenancy (Shared Accommodation): Separate units of a house or apartment are let out to rent for two or more distinct individuals is multi-tenancy.

Rental Income

By renting out your home to a single tenant, the probability of increasing the rent percentage after each renewal is less and your rental income is also comparatively low. However, letting out the individual rooms of your apartment/house to multiple tenants will help you earn more and increase your income.

While considering the risks of losing income, it is relatively high in case of a single-tenant and less for shared accommodation. If the tenant doesn’t agree to renew the lease or rental agreement in the single-tenant system, there exists a chance to lose the steady source of income in one go. On the other hand, in the shared accommodation type, even if one person tends to vacate, you will still receive the monthly rent from other persons in the house.

Finding New Tenants

In a single-tenant rental system, there are risks of the tenants vacating the house when you are outside the town or country and won’t be back for few days. The property might either be vacant till you resume back and look for another new tenant. This will take some span of time, as a result of which, your property might remain vacant for a longer time and the source of income is affected. In case of a multi-tenancy, you’ll have the option to fill the vacancy with referrals of other persons in the house and the rental income is also not affected.

Tenant-Property Management

Managing single tenants is easy and it involves less risk when compared to multi-tenancy. There will be persistent problems in decision making and sometimes even clashes occur between people in case of a multi-tenancy. This makes you get involved in every decision making step as a landlord in order to avoid any problems. Hiring a professional property manager would be the best option if you wish to let out your property for multi-tenants but at the same time don’t want to get involved in these problems.

Modesty & Peace

When two or more different people live together in the house on a shared basis, there are chances of rifts and differences of opinion between them. This will lead to a situation of complaining neighbors and loss of peace to your mind. There would also be a time when you had to intervene as a landlord and sort out things personally. These type of circumstances can be avoided in single tenancy as mostly, families will turn out to be single tenants and are helpful to you as well as neighbors.

With the growing rental housing demands in urban areas, the concept of multi-tenancy has been gaining popularity and many landlords prefer it for the steady rental income it offers. This will offer a better deal as per the current market conditions. However, it is up to your choice in deciding the tenancy type you prefer with regards to your likes and convenience.  

If you are to rent out your property, or searching for a property to rent, Sulekha helps you with the best options at your preferred budget and location.