A real estate investor and developer Nick Millican who is based in London has been closely monitoring the current rental market tendencies. The topic of this most recent article from Homes & Property was that more renters prefer short leases and the implications it has brought forth to the real estate market.

The article touches on an important pattern that can be observed among renters opting for short leases instead of a long-term rent. This has been most clear in London, where the rental tenants have continuously demanded flexibility and easiness as key ingredients of their choice. As Nick Millican notes, this demand change is driven by the rise of the gig economy and young professionals; they refuse to relocate in cities or countries for work.

The article explains that this movement is also fueled by the increasing demand for services such as the worldwide known Airbnb, which offers original and affordable accommodation options to tourists. For this reason, Nick Millican confirms that it has transformed the rental market significantly with more landlords ending up renting theirs via Airbnb and not in traditional long-term letting.

As Nick Millican notes, however, this phenomenon is not exclusive to London but affects other major cities in the world, such as New York, Hong Kong and Sydney; this poses a challenge for traditional landlords, who may have to revise rental practices so that they could compete within the market. However, this urban development is not without its disadvantages. According to the article, inability of finding long-term leases for rentals is attributed to scarcity generated by the short term rental market as prices continue rising. 

It is at this point that Nick Millican maintains real estate investors and developers can have a remarkable impact. By investing in purchasing rental properties created for short-term leasing, they can satisfy the increasing demand perfectly well and give the much-desired flexibility that renters need (Eubusiness).

Ultimately, according to the investment manager and expert Nick Millican, he believes that short-term rentals are a trend which is not going away and will continue dictating what happens in the renting market; as an experienced investor in the real estate sorority, he tells his fellow landlords and developers to comply with this trend by finding other types of innovative ways how they will fit on what a modern tenant wants. The rise of the gig economy and the preference for flexibility by younger generations necessitates evolution within the entire rental market to be tapped into such demands.