There’s no stopping them over at Chard Blog – the posts come pouring in, and not just with any regular information.

They have now decided to reveal the prices of the South Kensington & Chelsea properties they have let out in September!!! 39 up to date, with asked and achieved prices side by side:

*Prices are per week
*South Kensington & Chelsea Lettings
*September 2008 move-ins to date
*Asked>Acheived

1. 395>370
2. 475>425
3. 550>570
4. 250>250
5. 550>575
6. 1000>900
7. 1000>885
8. 630>600
9. 395>375
10. 350>355

Click here to see the next 29 figures

lehman.com/careers

The Lehman Brothers collapse is already having an impact on London’s rental market – Cluttons’ residential agency divisional head tells Financial Times that several Belgravia and Wapping tenants have already given notice on their rental properties. He expects to see more of that in the upcoming weeks.

Barry Manners from Chard comments London’s lettings market today:

On that side of things the news is not too bad, although some talk in the press about a boom in the London lettings market is, in my view, a bit less than certain. What is for sure is that there is a lot of property on the market, our instruction levels of flats and houses to let in London have more than doubled over the past year and another certainty is that tenants know it. The predicted boom in London rental values is, or at least has been to date, less than certain and will, in my view remain so. Many tenants renting property in central London work for banks and financial services companies in the City, how many will leave either London or indeed these shores is not yet clear, but there will undoubtedly be some.

Screenshot: Chard Blog

Another reason for tenants to avoid property rental ads posted by anonymous private landlords. The London Daily News reports:

A man in his mid 30-ies has just been jailed for life for subjecting women to horrendous ordeals.

He hunted for his victims at a youth hostel in West London posing as a landlord to vulnerable immigrant women. He told them he had a room to rent and made an arrangement for them to view it.

Once at the address in Evesham Walk, Brixton, he forced both victims at knifepoint to undress. Then over several hours assaulted and raped them.

If possible, have someone accompany you to the viewings of the rentals advertised by total strangers.

Turkish community paper Londra Gazete writes that it is increasingly difficult to get a decent private rental in London:

With rents for a two person room hitting around £150 a week and a studio flat renting at around £600-750 a month.

Coupled with bills for council tax and other utility bills, it becomes almost impossible to rent an economically suitable place.

Many landlords are also asking for hefty deposits as well as rent in advance which means that even the most scruffy room or flat can set back a potential tenant hundreds of pounds.

There have also been problems for members of the Turkish speaking community when landlords have insisted on tenants having bank account details and other documentation in order to allow for a tenant to take up residence.

Read the whole story with more details HERE.

Sunday Times on haggling for a lower rent:

Ms. Starkey, 26, of London, haggled down the cost of her rent by negotiating through her estate agent, saving £60 a week. Her flat in central London was advertised at £325 a week — but she bargained the landlord down to £265 a week, saving £60 a week off the original asking price or £3,120 a year.

Sarah Shortridge of Foxtons, the estate agent, said: “This is an unusually high saving. However, with the economy so unpredictable and mortgage rates higher than they were two years ago, landlords may be prepared to negotiate to secure tenants for two or three years, instead of six to 12 months.”

So how much should you ask the rent to be lowered?

If the rental seems to be priced right compared to other offers in the same location, about 5-15% discount is definitely alright to ask.

That doesn’t mean you are guaranteed to get the discount, as it depends on too many factors – the demand in the area, the landlord’s financial situation, your credibility, etc, etc.

Read our 8 Tips For Negotating a lower Rent.

The fresh ARLA members survey of private residential lettings sector in UK was conducted during August, with 453 letting offices responding. A few excerpts:

- Last 3 months have seen a rise of almost 20% in new tenancies;
- Rental returns rose from 4.8% to 4.9% throughout the country for both houses and flats;
- Values of houses to rent in prime central London rose by 8.3%;
- Values of flats to rent rose by 13.7% in prime central London.

Note that as more expensive properties are being released onto the rental market have had an effect on the responses to the survey.

- Time rental properties are empty an average of 4 weeks or less per year;
- Tenants continue to stay in properties for longer periods – on average, tenancies are lasting well over 18 months in London;
- Rent prices ranged from £799 a week for houses in central London and £532 for flats;
- Average rise in rents of 3% for houses and 7% for flats, largely driven by the London increases. Across all regions, the average rent of a house is at least half as much again as the rent for a flat;
- All areas report that there are properties, mainly houses, coming on to the rental market because they cannot be sold.

- 84% of respondents think that immigrants from new EU countries have had an effect on the private rental market in 2008;
- 63% do not believe that the majority of landlords are aware of their need to obtain Energy
Performance Certificates;
- 74% say that they think landlords are tending to wait until the 1st October deadline before obtaining their Energy Performance Certificates.

ARLA Members Survey of the Private Rented Sector – Quarter 3, 2008 (*pdf)

See also: ARLA Members Survey: 2Q 2008

(c) Trance-Elbow

Things you most definitely want to check in the rental property before it makes it to your final list. You might have to just live with those problems as they are hard to fix:

1. Dampness
Check all rooms, especially the wet ones:
a. Check the ceilings and walls for black spots – the mould is hazardous to your health.
b. If the the air seems damp, find out why.
You’ll most definitely have to deal with dampness in the basement or lower-ground floor flat.

2. Cold As Hell
a. Check each room’s climate and see that there are working heaters.

3. Too Noisy
You cannot expect to have farmhouse tranquility in the city but you might be able to save yourself from the worst.
a. Traffic – being next to a big road, a truck route, under the airplane route, helipad nearby, large intersection might get very busy at certain times;
b. Bars & restaurants area – expect loud drunks under your window at night
c. Back of a shop or restaurant in the courtyard – expect late night or early morning loading times

4. Water
a. Pressure – very often problematic
b. Hot water – check that the water gets hot enough
c. Get used to 2 taps in one sink – one for hot, one for cold.

What’s your experience?

Those who can’t sell are letting, those who can’t buy are renting, and those who can’t make up their minds are putting their houses on to the market for sale or to rent. This is how people are taking shelter from the cold wind of the recession, neatly avoiding the struggle to borrow and the fear of further price drops. To the article …

Twitter from Bathori.

What could Gumtree and other classifieds sites do about the increasing number of scam ads in their accommodation section?

Even if we say we would never fall for those scam ads – filtering still wastes a lot of our precious time. The last time we tried to find a flat through Gumtree, we ended up contacting the professional letting agent just to avoid further headache. The first two replies from flat advertisers were scams, and our patience ran out.

It’s hard to protect people with just providing warnings, hoping everyone will read them carefully. The youngsters and foreigners are usually in a hurry to find a place to live. Many have no-one to talk to, no-one to ask advice from.

It’s also very unlikely you’ll hear someone confessing falling for a scam like that. Cry in a pillow is what they’ll do. That doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist.

The scammers aren’t disappearing anywhere, so no use denying. In the 7,5 million people metropolis, the fraudsters know there’s always someone who’ll swallow the hook.

We like Gumtree too much to give up using it so we’re hoping their team is working on the solutions as we speak. Perhaps a simple IP registration notification could scare some? Or should all private landlords go through some sort of digital or physical authentication process?

Seems that the estate agents have strong faith in their soon to be launched new website. EstateAgentToday conducted an online survey on where the agents plan to advertise in the future:

There is a clear message that agents are planning to reject paid-for portals in favour of free sites, with three-quarters of agents saying they will not renew their subscriptions to Rightmove.

Yesterday morning, 959 votes had been registered. Of these, 726 (75.7%) said they would not renew with Rightmove, and 233 (24.3%) said they would.

Asked where agents would be placing their property advertising, the clear leader was Globrix with 401 votes, followed by the National Association of Estate Agents’ new free portal, Property Live, with 218 votes.

The paid-for portals Findaproperty with 231 votes came next – meaning that it is almost neck and neck with Rightmove – with Propertyfinder just behind, with 218 votes.

Make sure you don’t miss the annual event of Open House London, and mark your calendars now – the dates are September 20 & 21 (Sat., Sun.).

On those two days we will be able to get into nearly 700 of Capital’s buildings, for free!

Photo: City Hall

And landlord Lord Cardigan thought he had seen everything!

Rumor has it that Pete Doherty’s gig was promised to be held at the barn of the his rented home, the 18th century origin Sturmy House in Durley, after he was banned from performing at Moonfest.

The news must have been shocking to the landlord, who took action right away by writing to the local police:

“Should Doherty’s manager ever plan to carry out this threat, please be advised in advance that there are absolutely no circumstances in which the owners of that house where Doherty lives would ever sanction such a thing,” wrote Lord Cardigan on behalf of the Savernake Estate trustees, who are the owners of the property.

Keep an eye on that barn!

Photo: Miguel Da Silva

Foxtons Mini Coopers have yet again been redesigned. The theme of 2008 is space rockets – featuring futuristic colours and NASA-style numbers on the sides and roofs.

See all the previous designs HERE.