There’s an old received wisdom in many business circles that it’s always better to lease equipment, property or items than it is to buy them outright.
When you own these types of things you have to contend with price depreciation, maintenance costs and sinking a lot of your cash into assets that aren’t very easy to take your money out of at short notice.
How much the pandemic has had an effect on how people view renting things isn’t quite clear yet, but with a clearly shifting attitude towards home ownership and renting thanks to people moving around much more, it’s certainly possible that it’s caused people to rethink.
Going back around a decade, there is very little that you’d expect average consumers to rent or lease, aside from a home or a car, but with the improvement of technology and availability of better finance it appears to be becoming more common.
As we become more mobile and expect things much quicker, is it maybe inevitable that we’ll want to rent more things?
Will we rent everything?
According to research commissioned by musicMagpie, as part of a report exploring the rental revolution, the answer seems to be that attitudes are changing quickly and we’re now much more open to renting things rather than owning.
As reported by The Express, “More than half (55 percent) of respondents believe renting individual items is much more normalised now than it was five years ago.
And 53 percent said they no longer feel the need to own things – and that it is access to goods and services which is important.
A tenth would now even prefer to rent their wedding dress – as Carrie Symonds did when marrying Boris Johnson earlier this year – rather than owning it outright.”
This represents a fairly fundamental shift in attitudes towards renting and demonstrates that many of the outdated stereotypes of renting are now shifting quickly and appear to be disappearing.
This has also extended out to renting property or renting a home, and the data shows that more people than ever are looking to rent, but also have favourable views of renting homes rather than owning.
The benefits of not having to pay maintenance costs, being able to move quickly and the freedom to move fairly easily have all become highlighted in the pandemic when a premium was put on the ability to move around.
Work habits and attitudes have changed and, in turn, so have people’s views on renting houses and all number of things. If you’re thinking about moving or you’re looking for a rental property then get in touch with us today.
