The Landlord’s Dilemma: Renting to People With Pets

Finding affordable housing these days is challenging. That challenge can increase exponentially when you have a pet. Viral horror stories and confirmation bias have led many property owners to restrict pets in their rentals. This is unfortunate because these policies not only create housing challenges for many (especially in marginalized communities) but likely cost landlords far more money than they save. That brings us to The Landlord’s Dilemma: Should they follow their guts down the path of confirmation bias and restrictive policies, or should they follow the data showing pet owners are usually great and profitable tenets?

The answer seems obvious to me.

Are Pets Bad for Landlords?

We have all seen viral posts about apartments and rental properties destroyed by pets. We’ve heard the horror stories of toxic pet owners who draw complaints from an entire building. Anecdotally, at least, the only thing more destructive or disruptive than pets are children. The stories make for great clickbait, but when you dig deeper, it becomes apparent that they do not reflect the reality of renting to most pet owners.

What the Data Show

In a first-of-its-kind study that surveyed hundreds of landlords and tenants, Frank, Frank, and Nielsen found that renting to pet owners could increase landlord profitability. Landlords in some markets might find they can charge a slight premium for pet-friendly housing and still have no trouble filling the space. The study also found that renters with pets tend to stay longer, often years longer, than tenants in pet-restricted housing. A significant decrease in vacancy rates was also noted for pet-friendly housing.

While pet-friendly housing may bring in more income, there is still the issue of pet damage. While 85% of landlords who permitted pets did report experiencing some form of pet damage, the damage in most cases was significantly less than a month’s rent or security deposit. Even when confronted with more significant damage, the revenue generated by increased rent, decreased vacancies, and reduced tenant turnover more than compensated for the additional cost.

But making rentals more profitable isn’t even the best part. When landlords provide pet-friendly housing, they support healthier, stronger communities. Pet ownership has been connected with a general improvement in quality of life and a reduction in depression. Pet owners also tend to report higher life satisfaction than non-owners. Children also benefit from having pets in the home. Research published in 2017 demonstrated that growing up with a pet helps promote healthy social development. Even tenants who do not own pets can benefit from living in a pet-friendly complex, as the mere presence of dogs has been shown to increase interpersonal interactions in a community.

Pet-friendly Housing Saves Lives

Housing issues are also one of the top reasons dogs and cats end up in shelters. The Human Animal Support Services Project (HASS) recently released a study that shows that around 14% of animal shelter intake is due to housing issues. This is especially true in lower-income neighborhoods, where pet-friendly housing tends to be even harder to find. When landlords unnecessarily restrict pet owners' options, they force families to choose between housing and their companions. This not only leads to emotional devastation but also contributes to the severe overcrowding currently being seen in animal shelters around the country. The HASS research dives even deeper into the surrounding issues and is worth a read.

To put it plainly, restrictive pet policies in housing contribute to the deaths of thousands of animals every year. Today, landlords have the power to improve their bottom line while boosting quality of life and keeping animals out of shelters. I encourage anyone interested in providing pet-friendly housing to seek out the many available free online resources, including the Better Cities for Pets program, that provide landlords with guidelines and model agreements.