Some 43% of tenants would be happy to pay more rent if their landlord allowed them to put a more personal stamp on their property, according to a survey of 1,000 tenants by insurance provider Endsleigh.

The survey found tenants would be happy to fork out an additional £149.52 a year, on average, if they were allowed to decorate their rental property.

With two million private landlords, letting out five million homes in the UK that means there’s potentially an extra £530 million in revenue out there for landlords who explicitly say they are happy for tenants to decorate.

Only 29% of tenants surveyed have the freedom to decorate their property as they wish; but with a quarter (25%) living in a rental property for more than three years, and one in five saying they would be ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to avoid inviting relatives round their home if they were embarrassed about the décor, it’s understandable that tenants want to decorate their homes.

The top five things tenants want to do to their rental property, but aren’t permitted to do are:

• Paint the walls with colours (19%)
• Hang pictures or mirrors with screws (17%)
• Hang wallpaper (10%)
• Blue-tack pictures to the wall (9%)
• Hang a TV on the wall (9%)
• Just 28% of tenants ask their landlord for permission to decorate but of those that do, 76% of those tenants’ landlords agree to the request, despite it being against the tenancy agreement.

David Hadden, manager for landlords and lettings at Endsleigh said: “With it being so difficult to get on to the property ladder, people are now renting for longer, so naturally they are going to want to decorate the property they are living in long-term.

“Landlords who allow tenants to personalise their property could be favoured over those who don’t and may be able to command a higher rental price. If tenants feel at home in their property they may also have longer tenancies.”