A Lease can be written for any period of time, as long as both parties (owner and tenant) agrees.
A standard lease term appears to be 12 months; however, often a 6-month lease is negotiated to suit either party. We often recommend to our owners to sign up new tenants on a 6-month lease as a ‘trial period’. If all goes well, we then proceed to a 12-month lease renewal.
We recommend to our owners to avoid locking themselves into a lease for longer than 12 months.