(c) Russian London Ltd.

London estate agents are adopting new tactics to sell houses, writes Telegraph:

Once upon a time they spoke their own lingo – gazumping, contract races and bridging loans – but these days your London estate agent is speaking a new language: a foreign one. Yes, if you phone a branch of Douglas & Gordon and say, in your best Russian accent: “Ya khotel by kupit dom,” the estate agent at the end of the phone will know what you mean. “I want to buy a house.”

We think that’s great. Russian is not an easy language to learn (I speak it myself;)) but knowing the basics would surely be worth while for those agents who cover the areas where they prefer to buy (Lowndes Sq?) and rent (Mayfair?). Douglas & Gordon should now make a Russian version of their website or at least write a Добро пожаловать welcome note, like the one over at Harrods Estates.

Image from Russian London Luxury Guide (*pdf).

Say you’re renting a room in a flat, where at some point one of the tenants is moving out. The landlord might let you choose your new flatmate, provided you find him/her yourself. Where should you advertise the room?

This question was actually asked in LandlordZone forum but we’ll ask the same question for London specifically:

Which website is best to advertise a room to let in London?

What would you recommend and why?

Here is the list of websites that we know of:
EasyRoommate.com Lots of latmates, flatshares
FlatmateClick.co.uk Good selection of flatmates & flatshares
Gumtree Clasifieds site. Post room wanted or room available
Live Simply Listings from private landlords only
MoveFlat.co.uk Flatshares
Spareroom.co.uk Flat- & houseshares, flat- & roommates

FindaProperty.com lead us to this great map of nationalities living in London, drawn up by the flat-mates’ matcher EasyRoommate.com.

CLICK HERE to see which borough and area different nationalities prefer.

WINKWORTH West End
Address: 55 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1BS
Areas covered: Bloomsbury, Covent Garden, Fitzrovia, Marylebone, Mayfair, Soho
Jump to Winkworth West End website

We like the big glossy ads on the windows.

(c) tfl.co.uk

CLICK HERE to see all London letting agent offices in photos.

Graph from the Knight Frank’s latest research Autumn 2008 London Residential Review (*pdf).

Prime central London, according to Knight Frank, is: Belgravia, Chelsea, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Marylebone, Mayfair, Notting Hill, Regent’s Park, Riverside and St John’s Wood.

Renters are advised to not to pay rent up front for more than 1 month when moving into a property, unless they have proof that the landlord has not fallen behind with his mortgage payments. The number of buy-to-let investors who are in arrears, and face losing their property, has soared in the last 3 months.

Chris and Siobhan Taylor rented a five-bedroom house in Loughton, Essex, in August. They paid £48,000 upfront for the year after being offered a £6,000 discount. Now settled in, they have discovered that their landlord is already tens of thousands of pounds behind on his mortgage repayments.

‘We are feeling very vulnerable. We had no idea when we rented the property that this could happen. We just assumed that everything was OK. We face losing all our money and our deposit, or having to go to court, should the lender want to repossess during our one-year tenancy,’ says Siobhan, 39.

The Taylors have fallen into a gaping hole in the legislation covering tenants. As their rent is more than £25,000 a year, they had to sign a standard tenancy contract, not an assured shorthold tenancy contract, which would have given them a raft of protection.

It also means their initial £7,850 deposit was given directly to the landlord rather than being held by a third party under the Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme.

Read the whole story at MailOnline.

It would normally be up to the letting agent to check that the landlord’s lender knows about the property being rented out but do not count on it - it would be wise to always ask for some sort of proof on paper.

The annual Buy-To-Let guide published on Monday by the Association of Residential Letting Agents ARLA contains a lot of valuable information for not only landlords but tenants as well.

Click here to read the electronic version.

We found this excellent overview of the key elements of a tenancy, which lists the legislation requirements of England/Wales and Scotland (page 21 of the guide).

ARLA stresses in the article accompanying this table that tenants should always insist on a written agreement (although it is not a legal requirement) in order that they are aware of all their obligations and also those of their landlord. They advise not to settle for an agreement that is bought from newsagents, as it might not be up to date. By the way - ARLA standard tenancy agreement runs to some 20 pages!

Draught can be a major source of discomfort, increasing your heating costs by up to 25% in the winter. It is said that if all the sources of draughts in a typical home were added together, it would be equivalent to having a 1.5 metre by 1.0 metre hole in the wall!

This HomeServe video here will give you a few ideas on how you can fix the drafty windows and doors. But make sure you notify your landlord before you do any insulation by yourself, as the materials you use could be damaging to the property.

Sealing out draughts

This better be fiction or not happening to London letting agents:

While B, our lettings agent, stumbles through the door shaking water and possibly excess alcohol from her face - I know about the gin bottle in her glove box, and agents are resorting to drink as the market crumbles with an inevitability I long predicted - I ponder how much longer I’ll be staying.

Read the rest of the story here.

(c) Plaza Estates

Almost fell off my chair when I saw this photo. No problems with starting a conversation around this dinner table!

Seems that a lot of thought has been put into the seating in this house in Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge SW7, for rent by Plaza Estates.

Plaza Estates confirms that the prices of the very top end of the market have actually seen increase in the last few months:

Business has been excellent at the top end of the market with the usual seasonal demand for family houses / large flats and rents have held from due to a shortage of suitable property. This sector of the market has in fact seen rent increases.

Renters of the top end properties have very specific needs, and even though it’s L o n d o n, it’s very hard to find a place that meets all the needs and standards the tenant has grown accustomed to.

We came across this great niche site, which all the pet owners should love - PetFriendlyRentals.co.uk lists long term and holiday rentals in UK, where our small or big, furry or feathery friends, are welcome. The website is farely new but since advertising long term rentals is for free, they’ll probably have more London ads in the future as the word spreads.

I don’t think I ever saw the option of searching for a horse-friendly property on any other website before, although they get even more specific than that. For example, the landlord who says OK to dogs in the property, can choose which breeds are not allowed.

Should you want to take your pet along on a vacation or a short stay somewhere in the UK - the holiday accommodation search will be of great help.

Jump to PetFriendlyRentals.co.uk

Further job cuts in the City over the remainder of 2008 and 2009 mean we expect rental values in central London to fall by -7% from their peak, predicts the latest Savills‘ market report.

- The rental market in prime central London suffered at the hands of the weakened employment outlook in the City which led to a reduced demand for rental property. For the first time since 2003, rental growth across prime central London was negative, falling by -1.4% by Q3.

- So far this year and particularly more recently, activity has been strongest in the lower price bands with applicants who are employed in the financial sector choosing to rent. High levels of demand coupled with additional supply from buyers unable to sell their properties, is likely to keep rental growth in check over the coming months.

- The most vulnerable part of the market and where the downturn in corporate tenants has been most acutely felt is in the super-prime sector. This is the
sector where corporate tenants, often relocatees in the financial sector, have enjoyed big employer-paid subsidies in the past but are now suffering cutbacks.
Rents in this sector fell by -2.6% during the third quarter.

- Properties at the top end of the market (the ultraprime sector) recorded a rental rise in value over the third quarter of 0.7%, taking annual growth to 4.1%.
Demand remains strong within this price band although tenants are becoming increasingly price-sensitive.

*The rental market falls into three tiers; mid-prime (average £1,250 per week), super-prime (average £3,000 per week) and ultra-prime (average £4,000
per week).

Download the report HERE.

Like it or not but from now on we will be introducing the letting agents’ offices in photos! Just to give the renters who are looking online some touch of reality.

First in the line is: CHESTERTON Covent Garden
Address: 196 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JF
Jump to Chesterton’s homepage.

Rental flats and houses by Chesterton can apparently also be found on property portals Rightmove.co.uk and FindaProperty.com.

Office location on the map:

Click here to see our large map.

Should you have some photos of London estate agent offices lying around - we would be more than glad to post them along with your credits. Send your photos to: info at royalsofrent dot com.

We already know that Polish renters prefer Hammersmith and Ealing but where do the preferences of other nationalities lie? EasyRoommate.com would know, and so they say that:

It is noticeable that Australians prefer Earl’s Court and Shepherd’s Bush.

No wonder Earl Court’s nickname is Kangaroo Valley! Facebook’s Aussies in London group members say that Shepherd’s Bush is the new Earl’s Court. Acton NW10 and Willesden Green NW10 are also said to be full of people from down under. Areas around Walkabout bars also seem to attract more Australians.

But how are they as tenants? I actually had an Australian flatmate a few years back. That free-spirited young man in his mid-twenties could be described as very polite, considerate, and very respectful towards his flatmates. Always paid his rent on time, never had problems with cleanliness. We managed to live under the same roof for 6 months very peacefully. If I had to, I’d give Australian tenants a rating of 9/10.

Facebook Groups: Aussies in London, Australians in London
Read Australian Times, the newspaper for Australians living in London
An Aussie in London Stories from expat in London
Gumtree Classifieds ads site, which is popular among Australians

Video from YouTube: brettedgerton