I tell you – it’s usually very difficult to find the fees from agency websites. You’d be surprised of how many tenants will choose not to call the agent just because they cannot find the information (fast enough), and are afraid the cost of using the service might be too high.

List of London agents & their fees for tenants (always ask for agent’s confirmation!):

Acorn Admin Fee £100 + VAT per person, Reference Check £50 per person (via UOL)
Black Katz Admin Fee £120 (VAT included) per tenant
Knight Frank Admin Fee 200+VAT, Reference Check £27.50
Winkworth Admin Fee £70, Holding deposit 2 weeks rent, Reference Check £70 per property (via LSE)

We’ll keep updating this list and AGENTS who want to be listed here should leave a comment or contact us info [at] royalsofrent.com. We do NOT charge for this!

Renting through an agency in London is not cheap but I’d definitely recommend professional help if you’re new in town, have no-one to ask for advice, don’t know where west or east is or maybe don’t even know the language that much. Once you’ve decided to use an agent, stick to ARLA & NAEA members or agencies with a high-steet office with a long history.

So, before you decide to use a letting agent, make sure you know what they charge from you, the tenant.

List of fees that London letting agents may charge from tenants:

HOLDING DEPOSIT Reservation fee, usually 1-2 weeks rent for holding the rental until you sign a contract and move in. Deducted from the amount of rent in advance or deposit you pay once your references come through. Usually non-refundable.

ADMIN FEE Most common fee. This is for all the paperwork that the agent prepares. Usually non-refundable should you decide to walk out on the deal without a good reason.

CREDIT CHECK Checking your credit history from a database costs. Not all agents do that.

REFERENCE CHECK To prove tenant’s reliability. Might also mean just the credit database check. Not all agents do that.

CHECK-OUT FEE for the inventory check out and other documents. Not all agents do that.

Admin Fee and Holding Deposit are the most common charges. You can always negotiate the fees to be lower.

Important!
1) The agents are forbidden to take money for just registering or viewing the properties. As Shelter states - you shouldn’t have to pay any fees until the agency has found a place for you. It is a criminal offence for an agency to charge you just to register or for supplying addresses and details of accommodation. Don’t pay any fees until you’ve been offered a place.
2) Always, always take a receipt if you pay in cash!
3) If you believe an agency is acting illegally tell your local council’s tenancy relations officer or legal department.

See also:
List of Letting Agents & Their Fees For Tenants
List of London letting agents

Photo: merchantservicestotal.com

Red red wine!

Forget modest vanilla painted walls, the interior decoration in this house is bold and colourful.

Hamilton Terrace, St Johns Wood, NW8 5-bedroom detached house rents for £18 000 per week (£78 000 per month).

Inside: double volume drawing room with balcony, reception room, dining room, playroom, 2 study rooms, two kitchen / breakfast rooms, cinema room, master bedroom suite occupying the entire I floor with two dressing rooms, bathroom, sauna and balcony, 4 further bedrooms, 2 en suite bathrooms, 2 en suite shower rooms, wet room, 3 guest cloakrooms and utility room.

Can anyone tell which period is this house from? 19th century?

You can see a bit of a balcony in this photo, and the spectacular rear garden. Private, green and seems to get plenty sun. The ad says the size is only 111ft???

See more photos and the full ad at Knight Frank estate agency ad HERE.

Photos and map from knightfrank.co.uk.

An interesting study is being carried out on UK private rented sector by Professor Michael Ball, Professor of Urban and Property Economics at University of Reading. According to the research the value of the Private Rented Sector at over GBP500 billion now outstrips the total of all privately-owned commercial property, including offices, shops, hotels, factories, warehouses and leisure facilities. The study looks at how the private rented sector has evolved and will continue to develop as a key part of the modern housing market.

A more extensive report will be published in autumn but you can read the overview at ARLA’s website PART 1: PRIVATE RENTED HOUSING The Modern UK Housing Market – Origins and Prospects.

Sweet Home Alabama © Touchstone Pictures

American actress Reese Witherspoon is said to be renting a white stucco Victorian house in Notting Hill for £7000 per week.

Via: Homes and Property

He’s all grown up!

Gumtree holds a special place in my heart, as this is where I found my beloved Marylebone flat, which I rented back in 2004-2005. The popular free classifieds site was founded in 2000 in London, to help Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans find accommodation, employement and what-not. Now Wikipedia states that it is one of the top 20 UK websites!

The site has changed quite a bit in the last 4 years. I don’t remember the ad spaces in the header and footer, nor that there where SO MANY offers! The search for London’s North of the river Studios/Bedsits returned almost 800 offers that have been added today. Wow! What a choice. Of course, it’s Monday, a popular day for posting and updating ads. But still.

Here are a few private ads (commission free) for studio in Central London that might be suitable for our tenant:

• £230 Studio, W2 (Marble Arch)
  Separate kitchen, close to tube, includes all utility bills
• £275pw Beautiful studio flat to let (Mayfair)
  Mayfair! Perhaps the price could be negotiable?
• £259pw Studio Flat Marylebone London W1
  Separate kitchen, includes TV, DVD, Hifi, dishwasher
• £250pw Studio on Sloane Ave for rent (SW3 Chelsea)
  London’s most expensive postcode, Sloane Avenue, 24h reception.
• £250pw Studio Flat Marylebone Fitzrovia W1 (Marylebone W1)
  Fitzrovia, security entrance, balcony, dishwasher.

Check out “probably the biggest studio in London with sebarate good size kitchen” and all the other Gumtree studios/bedsits in North London HERE.

Make sure you read the Safety Tips before answering ANY ads from Gumtree!

We’ve received some feedback from the tenant looking for a studio in Central London. So we can now narrow down our search a bit:

1. Initial price limit £255 per week;
2. The flat should be furnished;
3. Her workplace is in W2, just a few hundred meters from Covent Garden tube station;
4. The flat should be available from 25.8.2008.

Advice and thoughts more than welcome!

A Good Year, imdb.com

The Sun reports that actor Russell Crowe is moving to London for the upcoming movie shoot!

He has supposedly rented a large house with a pool in Mayfair for the next six months, for £20 000 per month.

PS! Fans should keep an eye on About Mayfair blog.

Tips For Landlods and Tenants, Times Online.

It should not be hard to understand why we start our studio search from Craigslist – it’s easy to use, no fancy design, less clicking, and no banner ads to distract us.

Craigslist hasn’t been in London as long as Gumtree but has quite a lot of choice nevertheless. I am sure Americans are more comfortable using the site. Even London Relocation (the US origin agent we talked about) advertises it’s properties here.

Here are some central London studios listed in Craigslist in the past 3 days:

£110 / 1br – Single studio located in popular Kensington Olympia - (Kensington)
£130 Studio w/ private gardens in W1H 2LD - (Montagu Square, London , W1H 2LD)
£195 / 1br – Superb Selection of Cheap Studio apartments in London - (Bayswater)
£255 Modern double studio flat available to let - (Marble Arch)
£255 Spacious studio near Paddington W2 - (Sussex Gardens, London , W2 )
£280 Luxurious & Brand New Double Studio flat apartment - (Baker Street)
£280 spacious studio apartment - (CHELSEA)
£300 Spacious studio near Marble Arch W1H 7RB - (New Quebec Street, London , W1H 7RB)
£325 Stylish Studio in Victoria - (Wilton Rd, SW1)
£350 Fantastic brand new studio, 5 min from the tube, all bills incl - (Notting Hill)
£345 Amazing brand new studio, tv plasma, jacuzzi shower, all bills incl - (Notting hill)
£450 Very Large Modern studio in the heart of Marylebone village - (Marylebone)

Prices vary, as you can see. Depending on the size, location, condition – from 110-450pw or 476-1950per month.

A few definitions in studio ads, that need explanation:

Single studio = very small, for a single person
Double studio = reasonable size, suitable for a couple
Very large = good size

Fantastic, amazing, luxury, stunning, unreal Exaggerations mostly. Don’t get your hopes up:)
En-suite bathroom Bathroom in the unit.
Kitchenette Usually consists of a small refrigerator, a microwave oven, a hotplate, and a sink (Wikipedia).
Semi open-plan kitchen Not entirely open, not entirely separate.
Self-contained Flat has all its own facilities, so that a person living there does not have to share rooms such as a kitchen or bathroom with other people (Collins English Dictionary).
Mezzanine sleeping area Sleeping area on the intermediate floor in the room.

Before answering ANY Craigslist ads, be sure to read Avoiding scams & fraud and Personal safety tips.

Above the top 10 London boroughs that were most popular among immigrants in 2006/2007.

The latest statistics for London can be found in Focus on London 2008, the annual study by government data analysis department.

The following list contains the websites we are using to find rentals in London.

If you know a site that we have not listed – let us know in the comments section! We would very much appreciate comments that also tell us why exactly we should use that particular site.

13 Rental Property Portals
EasyRoommate.com Lots of latmates, flatshares
FlatmateClick.co.uk Good selection of flatmates & flatshares
LetsRentaPorperty UK property listings
Live Simply Listings from private landlords only
MoveFlat.co.uk Flatshares
Net-Lettings Linking to real estate agents in different areas. Has some listings, too. A good rent guide.
PetFriendlyRentals.co.uk Pet friendly rentals and holiday accommodation
RentRight
Simple2Rent Ads from private landlords and agents. Free listing.
Spareroom Flat- & houseshares, flat- & roommates
Sublet.com Properties let by tenants
TheLettingSite.co.uk residential and commercial lettings

11 Property Portals
FindaProperty.co.uk Property web-site with bothsales and rentals. Owned by Associated Newspapers.
Fish4 Shortcut to Fish4Lettings
Homes24 Simple to use site produced by community newspaper and magazine group Archant.
Hotproperty.co.uk Popular property sites. All green lately!
Housefinderuk.com Listings from private owners and agents
PrimeLocation.com UK rent and sell, find an agent, sold home prices
Properazzi.com Enormo Tom from Properazzi says it’s the world’s largest property website! Owned by Google.
PropertyFinder Real Estate portal. For rent, for sale, flatshares, agents, overseas properties. Featured in Yahoo!
Rightmove.co.uk Real Estate portal. For rent, for sale, flatshares, estate agents, news, overseas properties
Surf4aproperty.com
ThinkProperty.com

4 Classifieds Sites
Craigslist All kinds of ads, including lettings from private landlords and agents. US origin.
Gumtree All kinds of ads, including lettings from private landlords and agents. NZ origin?
Loot Free-ads paper with developing online site – ads from agents and private landlords. Owned by Associated Newspapers.
Studentbunk.com Accommodation, jobs and stuff for sale for students.

4 Property Search Engines
Globrix Crawls the web for listings. The firm is part-owned by News International, parent company of The Times, The Sun and The News of the World
DotHomes Search engine, properties for sale and rent
Nestoria property search engine – listings from agents only
Zoomf Search engine for sale and rental properties

4 Short Term, Holiday & Vacation Rental Portals
Apartments2Book Free booking service. Budget, luxury, extended stay
HolidayLettings.co.uk
HolidayRentals.co.uk
Move and Stay booking agency for serviced apartments and serviced offices worldwide

54 Estate Agency Websites
Alex Neil Established since 1984. Offices in E14, SE16, E3, SE3.
Andre Lanauvre Short and long term lettings SW1X
Base Sales and lettings worldwide
Black Katz Lettings only agency
Brompton Houses & apartments to rent in SW1, SW3, SW5, SW7, SW10, W8, W11 & W10
Champions Lettings
Chard Providing expertise in all aspects of the London residential property market
Chesterton Selling and letting since 1805
Cluttons Sales and lettings, the company was founded in 1765
Coutts de Lisle Service to both landlords and tenants in West Kensington, South Kensington, Kensington, Earls Court, Knightsbridge, Fulham, Chelsea, Knightsbridge, Notting Hill and Bayswater
Curzon Residential and commercial property in central London. Short lets!
Direct Residential Residential property management and letting specialist
Douglas and Gordon Sales and lettings. A porperty tracker for landlords, noticeboards for tenants!
Druce Sales, lettings, management
Faron Sutaria Properties for sale and for rent
Findlay Property Investment Flats & houses for rent, listings in English, Japanese, Polish and Spanish!
Foxtons Properties for sale and for rent, short and long term. Read all our blogposts on Foxtons HERE.
Our contact at Foxtons: Richard Connell Richard.Connell [at] Foxtons.co.uk
Fitz-Gibbon Lettings and management
Flatland Flatland Letting Agents specialize in budget accommodation
Gascoine-Pees Offices in SW1, SW15
Global Realty Sales and lettings
Haart Estate Agents Sales and lettings. Read all our blogposts on Haart HERE.
HalfaPercent Sales and lettings
Hamptons Sales and lettings
Harrods Estates Exclusive rentals
Hicks Lamme Residential Lettings and management
Humberts One of the leading firms of estate agents, chartered surveyors and valuers
Hurford Salvi Carr Reputable agent with offices in West End, City and Docklands
Iles Property Covering Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Kensington, Mayfair, Belgravia, Holland Park and surrounding areas
Interlet Lettings and management
Jackson Stops & Staff Estate agents in UK and abroad
Jeffrey Nicholas Sales and Lettings
JAC Strattons Sales and letting agent covering most of London
John D Wood & Co This company was founded in 1872
Jordan’s Properties Residential letting and property management
Keatons Sales and lettings
Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward Sales, lettings, management
Knight Frank Large estate agency
Lettings Professionals Battersea based London Letting Agency
LiveProperty.co.uk Sales, lettings, short lets
Ludlow Thompson RSS ad feeds, search by tube station. Offices at W3, E1, SE22, N4, SW9, NW6, SE13, E17, SW17, SW19.
Lurot Brand Sales, lettings
Marsh & Parsons Operating since 1856
Martin & Co Lettings and sales
McGlashans An estate agent specialising in premium lettings to first class tenants in Central London, especially Marylebone
M2 Property Sales, lettings, management
Palace Gate Sales and lettings
River Habitat Sales and lettings
Savills UK residential sales and lettings
Stirling Ackroyd Commercial and residential property
Thomas Spencer Sales and lettings in Clerkenwell, Islington, EC1, EC4, N1, Barbican, Farringdon, Shoreditch and Smithfield
TLC Earls Court, Kensington and Chelsea sales and lettings
Winkworth Properties for sale and for rent
White Estates Sales and lettings

21:41 edit: Just a note – we started with 74 websites (3 classifieds sites, 8 rental property portals, 6 property portals, 4 property search engines, 4 short-term, holiday and vacation rental portals, 49 estate agency websites).

Keywords that lead people to our site are a great source for trend-spotting.

The most popular keywords’ combination in the last couple of months has been “Ask landlord to lower rent“. It comes in different sentences – negotiate rent, letter to landlord to lower rent, sample letter negotiate lower rent, arguments to lower the rent, etc.

Just as the landlords are hoping to get some relief to the mortgage payments from rising the rent – surprise! At the same time the tenant is preparing a letter to ask the rent to be lowered.

Illustrative photo (c) Anthony Sharp, Studio flat on Kensington Park Rd.

This time we are helping someone to find a studio flat.

We’ll do the online search plus the initial filtering. Final sorting and viewing will be done by the tenant.

The Tenant

The tenant is a middle-aged professional woman (psychology major btw), who is planning to move from the outskirts to central London from September. It’s a bit early to start ringing up the landlords – usually a month in advance is suggested. But since August and September are the busiest in the year to be looking for accommodation in London, we better start already.

Initial requirementsfor the Studio

Area: Central London – W, NW, SW or Mayfair, Marylebone, Notting Hill, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Chelsea, Strand, etc. She wants to be able to walk to work!
Flat type: Studio with bathroom & small kitchen
Period: 1 year
Price: yet to specify after showing her the first bunch of offers
Other: Not too small, the brighter the better, no basement floor

The most common problem with the studios here is that they are often too small. One of the oddest ones I’ve seen was so small you could cook a meal on the range while sitting on the bed. The landlord proudly told me how he has split one apartment into many.

So we’ll have to do our best to filter the offers by just looking at the photos. We’ll look at the ones with pictures first, even if it costs us a great studio. We just want to waste as little time as possible, which is not easy in a big city like London.

Floorplan is absolutely essential in studio rental advertisement but as they generally rent quite fast, it’s a rare sight. I know that Foxtons usually has a plan in their ads but we’ll do a research on that, and let you know which agents have ads with floorplans.

The tenant prefers renting from a professional private landlord but doesn’t rule out a realiable agency. We’ll have to let her know what are the fees though.

We’ll start with this, and keep you posted on the progress.