{"id":11826,"date":"2020-01-13T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/news\/?p=11826"},"modified":"2022-07-24T15:57:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T19:57:59","slug":"rental-features","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/rental-features","title":{"rendered":"What Features Do Renters Look for When Renting?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A growing number of Canadians are now renting in order to stay in larger urban centres, or because they don\u2019t want to be locked into a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/housing-expenses-budget-template\">large purchase decision<\/a>. To help uncover what renter\u2019s want, Zolo conducted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/rental-property-survey\">rental property survey<\/a>. We asked almost 900 renters to tell us what they wanted in a rental home, what rental features are important and to assess their overall commitment to being a life-long renter.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s what we found:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not surprisingly, most renters are millennials (51%), while 19% of renters fell into the Gen X camp, and another 17% fell into the Gen Z cohort (the generation after millennials).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only a small segment of renters was aged 45 or older, with only 1% reporting that they were aged 65 or older.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">About 41% of renters remained in the same rental home for three years or longer; quite surprisingly 9% of these renters <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/responsibilities-as-a-renter\">stayed in the same rental unit<\/a> for 10 or more years.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">0 to 1 years: 17%<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1 to 3 years: 42%<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3 to 5 years: 17%<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5 to 7 years: 11%<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">7 to 9 years: 3%<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10+ years: 9%<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what\u2019s-most-important-when-looking-for-a-rental?\">What\u2019s Most Important When Looking for a Rental?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most significant factor to influence a renter\u2019s decision about a rental unit was price, with 73% of respondents reporting that they stayed right on budget, 19% reporting that they found a unit that was under their budget and 8% said they went over budget. It&#8217;s fair to say that pricing and budget is one of the most important rental features when deciding on a place to live.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what monthly rental rate were renters willing to pay?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">14% had a maximum rental budget of less than $500<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">35% had a rental budget that was between $500 and $999<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">28% had a rental budget that was between $1,000 and $1,499<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">13% had a rental budget that was between $1,500 and $1,999<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5% had a rental budget that was between $2,000 and $2,499<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2% had a rental budget that was between $2,500 and $2,999<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2% had a rental budget of $3,000 or more<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rental rates aside, there are other features, both in the home and the community, that renters want. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The \u201cmust-have\u201d features renters looked for in a rental home included:&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A rental unit that was pet-friendly (47%)<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An updated kitchen (37%)<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/total-bedroom-makeover-on-a-budget\">master bedroom<\/a> with an ensuite (37%)<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Updated or newer model furnace and A\/C units (31%)&nbsp;<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A garage (28%)<\/span><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, the features renters cared less about was whether or not the home had a mudroom (65%) or pool (53%) or an in-law suite (47%) or if the home provided accessibility features for those with mobility issues (42%).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Renters are also picky about the location of a rental unit \u2014 favouring some community features over others. Asked to rate how important each neighbourhood feature was (and allowed multiple responses), 42% reported wanting a rental that was close to work while 34% of respondents want to be close to public transit. Other big draws were rental accommodations that were close to family and friends or schools (both 31%) or close proximity to nearby community stores (29%).&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"will-you-always-be-a-renter?\">Will You Always Be a Renter?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Turns out the vast majority of renters (83%) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/right-time-to-buy-house-2019\">plan on buying<\/a>&nbsp;a home, and relatively soon.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">41% of renters plan to buy property in the next 1 to 3 years<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">26% of renters plan to buy in the next 3 to 5 years<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">12% of renters plan to buy within the year<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11% of renters plan to buy in six to 10 years<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">10% of renters plan to buy a decade or more from now<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For many renters, the biggest obstacle to purchasing their own home is saving up. Turns out 34% believe they need a larger down payment, while 14% cannot buy because they do not qualify for a mortgage; another 14% are in the process of repairing their credit score, while 12% cited the \u201clack of affordable housing options\u201d as their main obstacles to taking a leap into homeownership.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A growing number of people are now renting. To help uncover what renter\u2019s want we asked almost 900 tenants (most of them millennials) what features they looked for in a rental property<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15088],"tags":[108],"guide":[],"class_list":["post-11826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-renting","tag-renter"],"acf":[],"zolo_excerpt":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11826"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21818,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11826\/revisions\/21818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11826"},{"taxonomy":"guide","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zolo.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/guide?post=11826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}