Language barriers between landlords and tenants in Manchester have become a problem for more than one in ten, according to new research.
Online estate agent easyProperty.com have found that 14% of tenants don’t speak the same language as their landlords.
To help combat the problem, the company have launched a new translation service to help overseas renters and landlords in the UK.
Chris Welch, Chief Marketing Officer for easyProperty, said: “If landlords are to prosper, they need to understand the differences between various cultures and then market their property appropriately.”
“57% of population growth is due to net migration and in turn, the UK rental market is undergoing significant growth.
“We are the first ever letting agent to introduce this service.”
In Manchester, the top country of birth outside of the UK is Pakistan, followed by China, Nigeria and India with similar figures.
But in terms of proportion, 16% of Pakistanis currently residing in the city are immigrants, compared to only 5% of Chinese, Nigerian and Indian citizens.
In response to this, easyProperty is providing landlords with ready-translated tenancy agreements in Urdu and Chinese as well as Polish, Spanish, French, Romanian, Bulgarian and Russian.
These contracts will help tenants from overseas better understand what they’re signing.
The English language is the top spoken language in the UK by 92.3% of the population, while Polish is second spoken by 1%
Surprisingly though, Poland doesn’t feature in the top 10 countries of birth outside of the UK for people living in Manchester.
Image courtesy of Paul Cheek, with thanks.
