Pocket doors for rental properties - space saving for landlords

Pocket doors provide a functional and aesthetic benefit to a residential property. They provide flexible options for how you use a room or design a room layout, and they are stylish, unfussy and minimalist, in the sense that they slide into a wall pocket and disappear when opening, making a room feel modern and flawless. These are benefits which are much sought-after in contemporary properties, but the space-saving qualities of pocket doors are perhaps what they are best known for. This is a key benefit in any property, but particularly for landlords who are renting out a residential property and looking to maximise space.    

Why does a landlord need to maximise space?

A pocket door opens by sliding along an overhead rail and into a wall cavity known as the ‘pocket’. This means that the door doesn’t encroach into the room or outwards onto a landing or corridor, because it doesn’t sweep open in an arc like a traditional hinged door. This means the space immediately behind the door becomes usable, and opens up various options for how a room can be used.

Installing pocket doors in a property opens up around ten square feet of space. This is a big help to landlords letting a property because they are under pressure to:

• Provide safe and comfortable living conditions for a tenant as a basic legal duty
• Let individual rooms to tenants and hence make as many rooms as possible liveable and therefore usable as an individual let
• Provide dedicated bathroom and toilet facilities for all tenants
• Make a property attractive to prospective tenants

The pocket door therefore enables a landlord to maximise space so they can fully utilise a property and create rooms they can derive income from.

How landlords can use pocket doors to create space in a property

Pocket doors remove the need for clearance behind and in front of a door, and hence can make a significant difference in small spaces and large rooms. They are extremely versatile and allow a landlord to be creative in using space and maximising the opportunities to let spaces in a property. They can do this by:

• Dividing one large bedroom into two smaller bedrooms

This is ideal for houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) such as student accommodation where people pay for separate tenancies in the same property. Effectively they are paying for one dedicated room, and the use of other communal rooms such as the kitchen, living room, bathroom and toilet. The pocket door provides sufficient space to create two rooms out of one, in some cases, and hence doubles the income opportunities. This may also be appealing to a family looking to rent a whole property, as the property has sufficient bedrooms for all the family members.   

• Making a room larger to fit more in it

Commonly known as bedsits, this is a room where a person has a bed and also some living facilities, such as for cooking, washing and watching TV. By maximising space in a room a landlord may be able to provide these facilities.

• Creating a one-bedroom apartment

Creating important space also helps with a one-bedroom apartment, where a bedroom can be small if the rest of the apartment provides the comfort and facilities a tenant needs. A pocket door is useful in this scenario because it can provide a small bedroom in a large space, and allows the rest of the space to be used for everyday living purposes. 

• Making good use of small spaces

A landlord can refurbish and develop a property to make the best use of small spaces, which can be appealing in a rental property, particularly for families renting a whole property. So pocket doors enable bathrooms and a toilet to be created, they can provide important storage space and they can also enable a downstairs toilet, a larder or pantry, or a utility room to be created. These are all useful and appealing spaces which can be used to attract a good quality tenant.

Example Installation Images

Creating an attractive rental property with pocket doors

Landlords need to be aware that there are regulatory requirements they need to meet, in terms of how big a space needs to be in order to be large enough to legally rent out. This changes according to how many people are using the room and how old they are. So while a landlord can be creative in maximising space in a property, they also need to be careful that they are meeting their legal obligations and not attempting to let out rooms that are too small.

At Pocket Door Shop we provide a range of pocket door solutions which are suitable for rental properties, and which help a landlord create space and provide a suitable rental property that is attractive to prospective tenants.