So apparently the event is so popular it’s now being held every Tuesday.

Check out the event calendar HERE.

***

After arriving unfashionably close to the 7pm start, I was relieved to see potential flatmates spread thinly over the dance floor. Smiling attendees greeted me and, after confirmation of my place on the list, I was awarded a bright pink badge. Stuck to my chest my name was inscribed above a plaintive truth: I NEED A ROOM.

Even The Observer visits the event.

The new owners of The Australian pub building on Milner Street in Chelsea SW3 don’t care much about the lager lovers as the pub is now a posh furniture showroom instead. The good news is that the rooms that were once occupied by the pub staff have now been turned into 2 rental apartments. One has been let and the other just got some valuable advertising space in Times.

This 3-bedroom maisonette, designed by the owner Helen Green, is worth £2700 per week. Letting agent Lisa Kennard from Knight Frank says that tenants in Chelsea are tired of beige and taupe which used to be popular as people tried to recreate a deluxe hotel room. The flat on Milner St is said to have much more character.

The ad for the flat is HERE.

The furniture showroom downstairs has a website, too: The Helen Green Collection. We’ll add it to out Interior Market section as well.

Photo by LondonConstant

The National Landlords Association NLA will merge with the National Federation of Residential Landlords NFRL. The new organisation will remain under the title National Landlords Association and will represent nearly 20,000 landlords. It will be the largest representative body for landlords in the UK.

Via: AboutProperty.co.uk

Some go and negotiate with the bank, some cut the staff, some just go nuts:

Agents at Falcon & Foxglovein Burnley have been burying statues of St Joseph in the gardens of 12 properties for sale. So far, three have sold.

They probably stumbled into this website selling special home-seller kits.

Maybe faith will help them sell!

Good publicity anyway.

Today we are looking into the wallets of the people in the UK real estate industry.

- A good negotiator (agent) can earn between £27-£35k (per year);
- A good quality Branch Manager that has a track record of consistent performance can now command salaries up to £50k;
- A good valuer can command a salary of £18k upwards.

The information comes from the founders of the new recruitment website Buzzrecruit.com, which specialises in Consultants for Estate Agency, Lettings, Sales, Property, Customer Service and Financial Services.

Via: EstateAgentToday

Douglas & Gordon’s green campaign

Estate agents are being blamed for not knowing enough about the energy efficiency performance.

Do the same survey among professional landlords, please!

Well, I’m sure they are all studying the subject as we speak. The deadline is October the 1st, when tenants are entitled to ask to see the Energy Performance Certificate.

Until then - don’t forget to ask the landlord or agent for the latest Summer and Winter utility bills before renting a new place. Otherwise you might me unpleasantly surprised!

New Lodge (c) Evening Standard

Yes, believe it or not but a residence in the very heart of Hyde Park will be on available to rent from September! Evening Standard reveals that altogether 5 rentals in London royal parks have already been rented out, and 3 more will be available shortly.

New Lodge in Hyde Park will be rented out by a Knight Frank letting agent. The weekly rent for the 5-bedroom 3-storey house built in 1876 is £4,950. It has a large private garden that will be maintained by park ground staff. Tenants will have their own key to the park gates (locked at night). Royal Parks chief executive Mark Camley and trustee Joel Cadbury will host a viewing for potential tenants vetted by letting agent Knight Frank. The lodge will be let on short-term lease of between 2 and 3 years.

Blackheath Gate Lodge in Greenwich Park and Richmond Gate Lodge in Richmond Park are being refurbished and will come on to the market later this autumn. 5 best ones have already been let: Prince of Wales West Lodge in Hyde Park; Queen’s Gate Lodge in Kensington Gardens; 2 lodges in Regent’s Park; and a flat in Bushy Park.

We won’t hold our breath for the chance of seeing the Hyde Park rental advertised anywhere…

We’ve been dying to know how the property rental market in Beijing China has been doing since the games started. Chard London Sales & Lettings Blog has some answers:

Zhongda Hengji (Golden Key), one of the largest estate agencies in the Chinese capital Beijing, says over 20,000 apartments had been available to rent during the Olympic games, many of them having been bought from new specifically for this event. Rents were increased to 4.6 times the average rate.

The result? Well only 8,000 apartments were rented out – that’s just 40% of the supply – and those that went quickest and for the best rent were high-end properties in the centre of the city, rather than those closest to the sporting venues.

I have to say that it is not too easy to find accommodation in Beijing over the Internet, and even Zhongda Hengji does not seem to have their website in English (could be that I just couldn’t find the option). Those landlords/agents who have decent presentations on the web - with at least 3 photos and in many languages - definitely have an advantage in case of such global events.

*The 2-bedroom apartment in old Beijing District, Tianqiao (photo of the complex above, from ownersdirect.co.uk) cost £63 per night until the 15th of July and £79 per night from 16 July - 15 September 2008.

We are living in an Accidental Landlords era!

What energy Energy Performance Certificate?

From 1st October 2008 landlords must provide an Energy Performance Certificate to all new and prospective tenants!

Back in January we noticed that England football manager Fabio Capello was looking for a rental in London. Homes & Property now says he has happily settled in £4,500-a-week, two-bedroom Victorian flat in Cadogan Square, Knightsbridge, SW1.

If you want to be half as hip as Mr. Capello, you’ll consider renting one of these:

1. 3-bed flat£4000pw by Cluttons
2. 1-bed flat £1000pw by Chesterton
3. 2-bed flat £1000pw by W.A. Ellis
4. 2-bed flat £1250pw by W.A. Ellis
5. 2-bed flat £900pw by W.A. Ellis
6. 3-bed flat £3450pw by Knight Frank
7. 3-bed flat £4000pw by W.A. Ellis
8. 2-bed flat £5000pw by M2 Property
9. 5-bed flat £5500pw by Bective Leslie Marsh
10. 3-bed Maisonette £2850pw by W.A. Ellis

You might also want to look at this video of the 5-bed apartment for sale at Cadogan Square.

Forgot to mention earlier that the UK agents’ very own property website has a name, too - Property Live.

Here’s ARLA’s press release from yesterday:

PropertyLive - Coming soon!

Property Live – From the National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP) is currently under construction and is likely to be launched later this year at www.propertylive.co.uk.

The site is being launched in response to members’ requests for a standalone property portal and will have a display of domestic properties for sale or rent as well as commercial and overseas properties.

The site will be free to members under the NFOPP umbrella, including, the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA), the Institute of Commercial Business Agents (ICBA) and the National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA).

Further information will be available closer to the launch.

Good news for LiveProperty.co.uk!

The annual Notting Hill Carnival is taking place this weekend!

BBC recalls what the rental market was like around the W11 area just 50 years ago (in 1950ies):

Newly arrived migrants from the Caribbean had settled in the Colville area alongside the white working-class, and it was an uncomfortable existence. Landlords refused to rent to black families, advertising for rooms to rent specifying ‘no coloureds’ while other crammed several people into one room and charged over the odds.

Velma Davis remembers arriving in the area as a young woman from Trinidad in 1957. “Accommodation was the big problem. In those days they had big signs. “Signs were up at the windows - no blacks, no Irish, no dogs, no children. So that was difficult.”

The agents are busy uploading their properties yet to another website.

NAEA has confirmed that they are testing their new free property website, and will possibly launch it as early as September. The NAEA (and ARLA, we assume) agents will be able to post ads for free - financing comes from the annual membership fee of £175.

We noticed new Kent and York search sites appear on their page - wonder if that’s a preview?

Rightmove‘s shares fell 14.25p to 305.75p … (they charge estate agents £495 to advertise).

Do the agents have enough money for a quality website that tops others?

Via PropertyWeek.com

Some links to articles on student accommodation:

- Live it up [Independent]
- ‘I mean, what 20-year-old girl listens to Phil Collins?’ [Guardian]
- How to track down houses for courses [Guardian]
- Dispelling university myths in The Student Room [Times]
- Students urged to ensure deposit is protected [Easier Property]
- Student Property: Homes From Home [Telegraph]
- Student property: A lesson in responsibility [Telegraph]
- Student property: A study in practical style [Telegraph]

CLICK HERE for all the latest student accommodation news.

(Photo: Dormatory by Poosh)