Dean decorates rental homes in Parklands, NN3, for landlords and letting agents, about 2.5 miles north-east of Northampton town centre. The estate is mostly owner-occupied, so lets here are a mix of family semis, Coppice Drive bungalows and the top-floor maisonettes over the parade.
A small rental market with three kinds of let
Parklands is not a rental hotspot. Census-based figures from Crystal Roof put private renting at about 12% on Parklands Crescent and about 10% on Coppice Drive, with nearly nine in ten homes owner-occupied. The lets that do exist fall into three groups, and each turns over differently.
| Type of let | Size (from EPCs) | What a turnaround usually involves |
|---|---|---|
| Semi with rooms in the roof | About 74-105 sq m | Three floors of walls, a second staircase and roof-room ceilings that may show condensation marks |
| Coppice Drive semi bungalow | About 53 sq m | All on one level, so a full repaint is compact and quick |
| Maisonette above the parade (1a-1d Coppice Drive) | About 63 sq m | Top floor over working shops, flat roof above, access planned around trading |
Family houses on an owner-occupied estate tend to attract longer tenancies, so when a semi comes back after several years the wear can be heavier than a one-year flat let: picture hooks, marked halls, scuffed stair strings and tired kitchen walls.
Turning round a family semi
The roof room is where we look first. Energy certificates for these streets record poorly insulated roof rooms, and tenants don’t always ventilate them. Black spotting on the sloping ceiling or in the corners is common at the end of a tenancy. We treat it with a fungicidal wash, seal it with a stain-block so it doesn’t bleed through, and finish with a mould-resistant matt. It is worth mentioning the ventilation to the next tenant too. The second staircase also needs a look, because strings and spindles on a narrow roof-room stair get knocked when tenants move furniture in and out.
Elsewhere we tell you honestly which rooms need full coats and which only need touching in. Keeping one neutral colour across the house means future touch-ups match without repainting whole walls. Skirtings on the suspended timber floors are recaulked with a flexible filler, because the cracks along the top are the kind of thing an inventory clerk notes.
The maisonettes over the Coppice Drive shops
The top-floor maisonettes, 1a to 1d Coppice Drive, are stacked over the parade’s four businesses: the Tesco Express, the pharmacy, the chippy and the coffee shop. Inside they are straightforward compact flats. Getting in and out is the part that needs planning: gear has to be carried past the shopfronts without blocking customers or deliveries, and parking near the parade is busy. One EPC there records a flat roof with limited insulation, so the top-floor ceilings are worth checking for staining before you relist.
If the fascia and upper window frames on the parade also need attention, those can sometimes be done in the same visit, subject to what the freeholder and the shops below agree.
Working with letting agents
If you are not local, we can arrange key collection through your agent, send photographs of the finished rooms for the listing, and note anything we find that needs another trade, such as a leaking roof-room window or a loose stair spindle. Arrival times avoid the school run on Spinney Hill Road where possible. Because most homes on the estate are semis and detached houses with side access, exterior touch-ups to a let, such as a scuffed front door or a weathered back door, can often be added to the same visit without disturbing the neighbours.
How we approach rental work in general, including durable finishes and touch-up plans, is on our main landlord and letting agent decorating page. For likely costs, see our painter and decorator cost guide, and for the estate itself, our Parklands area page.
Last updated by Dean, DH Painter & Decorator.
