Tenants are just as vulnerable to defaulting on rent as struggling homebuyers are to meeting mortgage repayments, writes Lorna Bourke in CityWire:

Judienne Wood, lettings director at Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward is predicting that in 2009 the lettings market will remain fragile. ‘We will continue to see a fall in tenants registering as most will not move unless they really need to,’ she says. ‘Our stock levels are likely to rise as more would-be sellers rent out their homes and canny investors will buy investment properties cheaply to rent out. ‘As such, there will be a greater choice for tenants and the supply/demand ratio will increase.’

Read more…

Some notes from Knight Frank’s latest residential market research:

- Demand has risen over the past few months – mostly for more modestly priced properties. At higher price points, there are some properties that have remained on the market for considerable time without finding a tenant.

- New supply coming on stream from so-called ‘forced landlords’ – frustrated vendors who are unable or unwilling to sell their property in the current market and, as a result, have opted to let it out.

- Not only are there more houses and flats on the market than before – there are more highly-specified, well-presented properties on the market than is typically the case.

Read the whole report.

“Can you recommend areas that are equally nice but not as expensive as Chelsea or Mayfair?” asks a British renter, who is new to London.

What would you recommend? We will have to list some options here.

For comparison – here is what the average monthly rents are in these areas that are too expensive. According to FindaProperty.com area info:

London SW3 – Chelsea, Knightsbridge
London W1 – Mayfair, Soho, Fitzrovia, Marylebone

Police are reminding residents with uPVC doors to lock them with a key.

Some people think that by lifting the handle and closing the door the lock is engaged, but unless the key is used too it can still be opened from the outside.

Officers spread the message after a significant increase in burglaries involving unlocked uPVC doors in recent weeks, reports Barking and Dagenham Post.

Recommended reading: Home security

(photo: upvcdoorcompany.co.uk)

New research by estate agent Ludlow Thompson says that the demand for UK properties from Polish citizens has risen significantly in the 3rd quarter. From 1.8% of the total overseas demand in the second quarter to a 3.5% share of demand in the third quarter of this year. Read more at Housefund.co.uk (found via: Globrix blog)

*Approximately 204,000 Poles are said to be working in London (not including those who have set up as self-employed or are employed in the black economy). The main hub of the London Polish community is Hammersmith in West London, as well as Ealing, Enfield and Haringey.

*Did you hear about that new Polish TV-series “Londyńczycy” (Londoners in Polish)?

Benszymanski at PolishForums.com gives a little insight as to what happened in the first episode

Well it’s the first episode so really they were just introducing the characters and setting the scene. There is a girl who has gone to London to be with her boyfriend who turns out to be a drug dealer and already is getting her in trouble, there is a guy who has moved with his son to be with his wife (who’s already been there 6 months). There’s a couple who work in a bar (although they had a bust up). As you can imagine most of them live in Ealing and there’s lots of shots of red buses driving about…

*Here’s a LINK to a good English-Polish/Polish-English dictionary.

265 shops
96 escalators
50 exciting eating places
14 movie theater screens
gym (opens in 2009)
spa (opens in 2009)
library

Mega mall Westfield opens it’s doors on Thursday in White City, Shepherds Bush W12.

The 7 000 people working there will be expecting ca 70 000 visitors daily. Half the employees will consider moving closer to the shopping centre… Not to mention those true shopaholics, who want to live near their mecca.

Rental prices for flats and houses in W12 according to the properties available on Rightmove are as follows:

Studios £175-295 pw
1-beds £200-345 pw
2-beds £250-950 pw
3-beds £315-630 pw
4-beds £375-875 pw
5-beds £800-850 pw

I dare you to take the central line tube to the viewings.

68 and 72 Cadogan Square (c) George P. Landow, The Victorian Web

Even the prestigious Cadogan Square in Knightsbridge SW1X is struggling to find new tenants, reports Times Online. They found 31 apartments available to rent, 10 of which have come on the market in the past three weeks.

“It’s the middle tier that has been hit hardest,” says Jane Ingram, head of lettings at Savills. “Properties like the ones on Cadogan Square, which previously went for between £1,000 and £2,500 a week to City high-flyers, are languishing on the market.”

Rents are coming down by at least 10%, if not 20%, according to Ingram – “And because you’ve got the stock coming through from the sales market, as well as lower tenant demand, things are just sitting there.”

The lower, “bread and butter” end – properties that let for less than £650 a week – is still active, as is the top tier – more than £3,000 a week in upmarket areas or above £1,500 everywhere else in the capital.

Read the full article: High-end London rents are falling

Nestoria property search engine lists 432 properties to rent in Cadogan Square. Click here to browse.

Unless you have just landed in the UK, you probably know that all the tenancies that started on or after the 1st of October 2008, have to have an Energy Performance Certificate. The EPC shows two things – the Energy Efficiency Rating (relating to running costs) and the Environmental Impact Rating (relating to the carbon dioxide emissions) of a dwelling. Each rating is shown on an A–G rating scale similar to those used for fridges and other electrical appliances.

It is not mandatory for the landlord or agent to put the scores or graphs in the online advertisements of residential rentals but thankfully the bigger estate agents have already started doing it.

Property agent Knight Frank adds a “View EPC Graph” button in the rental listings on their website.

Missing EPC scores will lead tenants thinking that:

a) there is no certificate – without which the tenancy agreement cannot be signed;
b) the agent or landlord doesn’t care – which probably means they are not so good at managing the property either;
c) the score is very low – running costs very high.

Many prospective tenants will put those non-transparent offers aside until they have seen everything else available.

Suggested reading: Energy performance certificates for dwellings in the social and private rented sectors, A guide for landlords (*pdf)

A new booklet for landlords gives advice on how to spot drug factory in the rented property. The police has found them in London areas that you would never suspect, so this concerns everybody.

In case you are suspicious of your neighbours, here are some signs that the landlords are advised to look for:

How to spot a cannabis factory

- A strong, pungent smell coming from the property
- Electrical wiring that has been tampered with
- Beware of booby traps. Electrical wiring may have been rigged up to door handles etc.
- Powerful lights left on in the house throughout the night
- Windows blacked out
- A sudden jump or increase in the cost of electricity bills
- Scuffed paint or wallpaper
- Large quantities of bin bags, full of vegetable material, thrown away
- Rewiring efforts or bypassed circuitry

In case of other drugs

- Large amounts of chemicals products
- Coffee filters
- Boxes of red matches
- Stripped battery cases
- Ephedrine or pseudoephedrine based medicines (cold or allergy medicines)
- Strong or unpleasant chemical smells such as ammonia
- Chemistry equipment such as glass flasks, chemical reactors etc.

Here is what landlords and letting agents should be aware of when letting out rented premises:

- A prospective tenant’s willingness to pay months of rent in advance, or above the going rate, particularly in cash
- Never accept rent in cash. Ask for bank account details.
- Never accept tenants without checking references and backgrounds first
- Be suspicious if a tenant never allows you access to the property or refuses you entry to certain rooms or areas of the property
- If the tenant asks to meet you away from the property to pay rent, or to discuss anything about the accommodation
- If the tenant puts deadlocks or alarms on internal doors, and has made attempts to install fortifications on the exterior of the property.

Source: Landlord’s Guide To Keeping Illegal Drugs Out Of Rented Properties (*pdf)
Via: ThisIsPlymouth.co.uk

High hopes for East London’s bright future are overshadowed by the 2012 Olympic games’ funding problems, and the collapse of some of the biggest resident banks, which has left the Canary Warf and Docklands “soulless” and eerie. Read more from TimesOnline.

Major recommendations to improve the Private Rented Sector for both tenants and landlords were published today. The review recommends to improve the quality of the sector through:

• Introducing a light touch licensing system for landlords and mandatory regulation for letting agencies, to increase protection for both vulnerable tenants and good landlords.
• Introducing a new independent complaints and redress procedure for consumers, to help end long drawn out disputes.
• Tax changes to encourage good landlords to grow, including changes to stamp duty to encourage them to buy more properties.
• Looking at ways for the PRS to be more accommodating towards households on lower incomes, including considering more support for landlords prepared to house more vulnerable people.
• Local authorities taking steps to better understand the sector and support good landlords whilst tackling poorly performing landlords and promoting tenants’ rights.

Julie Rugg and David Rhodes were commissioned by the Government in January 2008 to look at what problems tenants and landlords face in the Private Rented Sector. The report can be viewed at www.york.ac.uk/inst/chp/Projects/PRSreview.htm

The Government will now carefully consider the recommendations before deciding next steps.

Source: Communities & Local Government

Primelocation.com has just released the September Prime Property Index on London and UK-wide sales values and London lettings.

Here’s what the index shows about the prime London Lettings:

1. Weekly rental values have dropped for the 6th successive month by 1.16% whilst stock continues to remain empty. Landlords must continue to offer reduced rates in order to entice prospective tenants.

2. Only Central and South West London has seen positive growth, with weekly rents being hardest hit in all other areas of London as stock continues to flood the London rental market.

- Kentish Town NW5 has seen rents rise by 4% and Bloomsbury WC1, Clerkenwell EC1 and City have too by 4.6%. Highgate N6, which is just up the road from Kentish Town, has seen rental values decrease by 4% since August.

- West London rents were hardest hit – falling 2.51% as stock continues to flow onto the prime London rental market. Kensington W8 has also had a bad month with values down 3.6% and so too has Putney SW15 and East Sheen SW14, down 4.6%.

3. Annualised price changes continue to fall and are now at their lowest since January 2005, with weekly rents 2.28% lower than September 2007.

Andrew Smith, Primelocation.com’s Head of Insight comments:

“The current turmoil in the market is affecting all property owners, including those in prime London locations and, unlike the mainstream market where stock is falling to record lows, we have seen an increasing amount of prime stock come onto the market for both sales and lettings in the past few months. The increase in stock for sale has been caused by wealthy investors offloading stock as well as home owners who have been forced to re-evaluating their finances following steep rises in mortgage rates.”

In London, there has already been a number of widely reported job cuts from companies struggling to cope with the turmoil in the financial markets including Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and HSBC. These job losses are expected to have an especially severe impact on the corporate rental market, which had been one of the few property sectors performing well this year. Rental agents Savills say 64 per cent of its corporate tenants in London work in the financial services industry, a proportion mirrored in most top-end lettings agencies. Large-scale job losses will result in the termination of tenancies on hundreds of top-end apartments and houses in many prime London areas.

Andrew continues, “Many would-be vendors who have been unable to sell their property for the desired price are deciding to let it out. This comes at a time when many of the people who would have previously snapped this type of property up, namely high earners working in the financial sector, are facing their own uncertainties. At the prime end of the rental market, the combination of increased stock levels and fewer companies able or willing to spend money on expensive corporate lets is likely to mean that landlords will be faced with the choice of either accepting a lower rent or suffering longer void periods. We expect this trend to continue until the financial markets find some stability.”

For further information on the Primelocation.com Prime Index go to www.primelocation.com.

Looks like the U.S. Embassy really will be moving. The relocation will take at least 5 years.

Evening Standard reports that the Candy brothers are planning to convert the site into luxury flats.

Update: U.S. Embassy on London’s Grosvenor Square Put on Sale

Read also:
US Embassy May Leave Mayfair
Architecture & Design Critic: Save Our Saarinen!

The new property website everybody has been talking about since the end of August is finally open to the public. PropertyLive.co.uk is the only property search site that’s regulated, protected and run by a professional body of fully accredited agents (NFOPP).

It has been a very painful birth, with endless postponements of the launch. But the long wait has also kept everybody on toes, and the site has gotten free advertising in the media for almost two months now.

Here are some of our thoughts on the beta version.

We like the design
So much better than what we expected. Bright colours, fresh faces – the vibe is so positive that we don’t even want to complain about the fact that there are only 7 London rental properties available on the site at the moment:)

Quick access to browsing
With just a little typing (area, address or postcode) and 1 click we are browsing the listings. No registration needed.

Easy-to-the-eye listing layout
Nice and simple. We like the tab-system – maps, floorplans and EPC’s will be on different sheets.

Well done, Hurford Salvi Carr!
There are only 7 rentals here on the day of the launch, and they’re all by an estate agent Hurford Salvi Carr. Talk about a good exposure!

Anything missing?

London Rentals
We understand that it will take some time before we can actually use the site. The 13 000 agents are said to have about 200 000 UK properties ready to go on but will start by loading 50 000 in the beginning. There are only 7 London rentals on the site at the moment.

A Blog?
We need something that says that this site is alive and well. Something else has to be boiling there besides the listings!

The NFOPP chief Peter Bolton King probably hasn’t had a good night sleep since … knows when. I can just imagine how impatient agents have been. The delays in website development are quite common though, so we tenants don’t really care that it has taken more time. Besides – it’s not like that site is ever going to be ready – a good website today is constantly growing and changing.

Should other property websites be trembling? We highly doubt that the agents would put their eggs in just one basket. You never know what the competitors will come up with next!

PropertyLive.co.uk is up!

We are off to explore!