<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And you have to increase the rent to break even in terms of income.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So much for everything going well. If you increase the rent by a lot, you might scare your tenant<\/a> away. And you don\u2019t really want that to happen, because you\u2019d have to pull out all the stops to find <\/span>another<\/span><\/i> tenant.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On the other hand, if you <\/span>don\u2019t<\/span><\/i> increase the rent, it might put a dent in your finances and you might end up struggling financially.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What to do?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It might be also that there are necessities that you have to buy, and the cost of those necessities increased. Things that you have control over but still have to spend for like maintenance (e.g: gutter cleaning, pest exterminators) and repairs (e.g: plumbing) and vacancies.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Not raising the rent when expenses\/prices of things that you need increase won\u2019t help you break even. So run the numbers and go through some calculations that will help you determine a figure that will help you sustain your income and (preferably + hopefully) not scare your tenant away.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Despite a higher cost of living, your expenses don\u2019t get a say in determining the rent. The market and economy do. The two factors ultimately have the say in the rent you can charge. Put a price that\u2019s higher than the average value of the market, and you\u2019ll lose out on money as it won\u2019t appeal to tenants.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But if you need to charge more, but you can\u2019t because of the market, you\u2019ll need to reevaluate and reconsider if you should hold onto the property (cause it can\u2019t bring you money or break even).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n …yes, raising the rent in proportion to the rising cost of living is reasonable. Whether it\u2019s because of the cost of living, or just to earn money, it\u2019s not exactly a crime as it <\/span>is<\/span><\/i> a business. And you as a landlord are conducting business, plus why you\u2019re in a business is to make money. \u00a0<\/p>\n So if your rentals are lower than the other or similar places in your area, <\/span>but <\/span><\/i>your property is on par with your competition, raise the rent and be on their level.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be that one landlord who increased the rent by 20% (which is a HUGE increase by the way). Or 30%. Or 50%. \u00a0<\/p>\n Well, unless you want to drive out your tenant on purpose or something.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n You get the picture.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A yearly increase that (sane, normal, regular) people would be able to handle is usually between 3 to 5 percent. So if your rent is RM1100, it would be an increase of RM33 (that RM33 is still good money, okay? I mean, all the nasi lemak\u2026).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Nevermind, forget it. I can\u2019t raise the rent even if I wanted to.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Someone\u2019s controlling your property with the Force? Or does a restriction on rent exist? If this is the case, you have to comply with the law. So unless you want to land in hot water or jump into a frying pan with full force, just leave it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n By the way, you also can\u2019t suddenly raise the rent during the agreed tenancy\/leasing. For example, if the tenancy agreement<\/a> for a year states that the rental is RM1200, your tenant still has to pay you RM1200. You can\u2019t suddenly raise it and ask for your tenant to immediately pay RM1300 every month until the lease ends.<\/span><\/p>\n Nope, nada, zip.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But if you want to land yourself in court and try Legal Battle Wars…<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s not that I can\u2019t raise the rent, I just… I feel bad. PEOPLE NEED A PLACE TO STAY.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Bless all that is good and holy because you\u2019re a living angel. If you\u2019re happy with the arrangement, that\u2019s fine. You might want to consider increasing the price such that it meets the market rate to break even at least though.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Anyway, if you know what\u2019s a good rate for your area, be confident in the amount you\u2019ve set for rent. But if you need to, remember it\u2019s always easier for tenants to handle a slight rent increase than a huge one.<\/span><\/p>\n\n Related guides<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Related guides:<\/strong> complete landlord guide Malaysia<\/a> | how to rent out property in Malaysia<\/a> | tenancy agreement guide for Malaysia<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The rental was fine a year ago, and everything was peachy. The skies were blue, birds were flying…until you got smacked in the face with the fact that the cost of living increased.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19,9764],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landlord","tag-landlord-guide","tag-rental-guide"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/graph-3078546_640.png","author_info":{"display_name":"SPEEDHOME Editorial Team","author_link":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/author\/speedhome-editorial\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52942,"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/52942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/speedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/span><\/p>\nShould You Raise the Rent? How to Decide<\/h2>\n\n
Sometimes, you can\u2019t avoid having to raise rent<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"wordcloud\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/5307773\/Imported_Blog_Media\/wordcloud.jpg\")
This is because of external factors like new laws or taxes, maybe even fees and charges. Or maybe the economy is bad.<\/span><\/p>\nWhile that might be the case, the market is still the ultimate factor<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"graph-3078546_640\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/5307773\/Imported_Blog_Media\/graph-3078546_640.png\")
<\/span><\/p>\nDon\u2019t worry, making money isn\u2019t a crime\u00a0
![\"approval-female-gesture-hand-41373\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/5307773\/Imported_Blog_Media\/approval-female-gesture-hand-41373.jpeg\")
<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nI want to increase the rent, but how much would be considered a decent amount?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"pexels-photo-1440918\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/5307773\/Imported_Blog_Media\/pexels-photo-1440918.jpeg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"pexels-photo-59523\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/5307773\/Imported_Blog_Media\/pexels-photo-59523.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\nRelated guides<\/h2>\n\n\n
![\"young-791849_640\"](\"https:\/\/cdn2.hubspot.net\/hubfs\/5307773\/Imported_Blog_Media\/young-791849_640.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\n