Better renters mean higher rental income

Better renters, higher rental income Rental yield is decided less by the rent you advertise than by the tenant you choose. One bad tenancy can erase several years of a rent increase. Where the money actually leaks

Vacancy: every empty month costs a full month's rent, plus marketing and viewings

Turnover: cleaning, repainting, small repairs and your own time between tenants

Arrears: unpaid rent is rarely recovered in full, and collection takes months

Disputes and eviction: legal costs plus a long period with no income

Wear: a careless tenant shortens the interval between renovations

The arithmetic of a reliable tenant Assume a 1,000 € monthly rent. A tenant who stays three years instead of one avoids two turnovers: at one vacant month plus roughly 500 € of make-ready costs each, that is about 3,000 €, or 8 % of the rent collected over the period. Charging 30 € less per month to secure a clearly reliable, longer-staying applicant costs 1,080 € over three years — and still leaves you ahead. Screen on evidence, not impressions A credit report shows failures that already escalated; payslips are a snapshot; references are written by interested parties. A Maja profile shows verified monthly rent payments taken straight from the applicant's bank feed with read-only PSD2 access: how many months, how many on time, over what period. The first three months are free to view, and you can unlock 6, 12 or 24 months for 7.90 €, 12.90 € or 17.90 € per profile when a long lease justifies it — a rounding error against one vacant month. Keep good tenants once you have them Fix things quickly, communicate clearly, and raise rent predictably and modestly rather than in sudden jumps. Retention is the cheapest yield improvement available to a landlord. And keep the paperwork automatic In Finland, Maja can also file your monthly rental income report to OmaVero for 4.50 € per month per property, retroactive months included, so the income you protect does not create new manual bookkeeping. More from Maja