(c) Marsh & Parsons Brook Green office

Top 10 Tips for Tenants by estate agent Marsh & Parsons.

The very first edition of the FindaProperty.com Rental Index is now available!

London Rental Market

Asking property rental prices in London have begun to fall, as a glut of new property swamps the market. Areas that have been particularly dependent on tenants working in the financial services sector such as the City of London, Tower Hamlets (incorporating Canary Wharf) and Kensington & Chelsea, have seen the biggest annual falls in asking rents. Some areas such as City of London have seen their average rental asking price come down by up to 11.7% (=£221). In contrast, London’s more affordable boroughs have seen their rental asking prices rise by up to 6.7% (=£74). London average monthly rental price now stands at £1,669.

London boroughs overview, click to enlarge the screenshot of the report.

Andrew Smith, Head of Research, comments:

“The London rental market has been heavily touched by the recent turmoil in the city. Areas that used to historically be populated by city workers either renting by themselves or occupying a corporate let have felt the pinch the most. In contrast, more affordable locations usually situated in London’s outer boroughs have benefited from rental growth. We attribute this to tenants willing to expand their area of property search to achieve more affordable rents and these areas to be less reliant on city workers.”

Best & Worst performers, click on it to enlarge screenshot of the report.

Download the full report HERE.

Another London Fashion Week has ended and we feel inspired!

We searched property portal Globrix for rentals that would match a design by one of our favourite designers from London Fashion Week.

Left: Ossie Clark’s Autumn/Winter 2009 collection at LFW [photo: catwalking.com] >>> more
Right: Outlet’s 2-bedroom apartment in Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia >>> more

Remember when we said it wouldn’t be advisable for agents to translate their website with Google Translate as it could lead to misunderstandings?

Estate agent Ludlow Thompson has found a rather acceptable way around it IOHO. Clicking on the flag of the desired language leads you to an opening page that says:

Important Note:

Online translation facilities are not always totally accurate.
It may happen that the translation of some words do not fully correspond to their original meaning.

As long as we tenants are aware that this is Google Translate, and not an original 100% correct translation, there will be no problems, right?

Would be interesting to see what Ludlow Thompson’s website statistics say and how much are visitors using these translated pages.

Click here to see the list of twitterers who have something to say to London renters.

We will be updating the list, so please do not hesitate to tweet us if you want to be seen on it!

Estate agent DomusNova’s website is simply addictive.

We’ve just spent an hour on it looking at the pictures of the rentals – seeing the photos full screen is just so enjoyable.

DomusNova operates in West London – covering postcodes W2, W8, W9, W10, W11, W12, NW6, NW10.

You will love their full screen interactive local map (click LOCAL on the menu), and the navigation system which is built up so that you won’t have to do much clicking.

The website was launched in September last year.

Jump to www.domusnova.com

The latest research from The Deposit Protection Service (DPS) reveals that Westminster remains the most expensive area in the UK, measured by the average deposit demanded by landlords. The average deposit has fallen slightly in the past six months, from £1,909 to £1,890.

Dressed in pink pony skin and leather, with exuberantly ornate detail and luxury
fabrics throughout, the Schiaparelli’s king-sized double bedroom may fairly be
described as iconic; the envy of any luxury London hotel. The May Fair Hotel.

CLICK HERE to see the list of recommended hotels on London Fashion Week website.

Yahoo! Answers seems to have gathered an impressive amount of users! Lots of questions answered. People there are friendly and helpful, none of that “Go search on Google, duh!”

Ask your question on:

- Renting & Real Estate UK
- Home & Garden UK

*Notting Hill

Estate agent Chard once again sheds some light on what is really happening with London rents.

Click here to see how many tenancies their Kensington and Notting Hill lettings department signed, and what were the asked/achieved prices for the period of  1-14th of February.

No one paid the asking price. The rents were negotiated down from £5 up to £500 per week.

Click here to see the numbers for September 2008.

So, when was the last time you looked at the estate agent’s window?

Hunters estate agents has 24 branches from Andover to Harrogate and is now recruiting 750 people. But these new staff members will not be working in the branches. Instead, they will be “mobile operators” working across the UK from their cars and homes rather than traditional high street offices. The firm has already tried out the no-office sales strategy and claims it to be a success.

They have not been operating in London but I guess there are no limits now?!

I know that agents are rarely in the office anyways. If organised well, why not, if it helps cut the costs, and make the service cheaper…

Is this the end of tenancy agreements on paper?

Guardian: Out of office estate agents

Property website Enormo has just notified us (through Twitter!) of some significant changes.

They say they have improved the way the site looks and feels, and – all the UK properties can now be accessed from a separate domain name Enormo.co.uk as well.

Our thoughts about the new site, looking from London renter’s point of view:

+ it’s very simple to use
+ it’s clean, there are no distractions (no banner ads yet;))
+ surprisingly fast
+ we like  the convenient links to the original ad and agent’s website
+ we can feed London rental listings to our Google Reader through RSS (Subscribe)

- Too many steps/clicks to get to the listings through search. It’s personal, I guess but we prefer to do the filtering after, here you have to do that first. NB! click on the shorcut Popular Searches: London to get to the London listings right away.
- Not all London rental properties are here. YET. 2250 rentals in London at the moment (10 000 + in Globrix, 21 000 in FindaProperty.com)

All in all, the site looks very promising. If you like good order, and browsing without any distractions – use it already.

Jump to London lettings at Enormo
Follow Enormo_UK on Twitter

View from a flat in Marylebone

Wow – more than half of all disputes sent to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme involve cleaning!

TDS has just published a series of case studies of disputes between landlords and tenants over deposit monies due. Read the case studies HERE.

A few facts from TDS:
- since April 2007, the Tenancy Deposit Scheme has resolved 3,567 disputes;
- at the end of January, the Scheme was safeguarding £757 million in deposits, covering 768,171 tenancies.
- More than half of all disputes, 52%, sent to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme involve cleaning;
- over a third, 45%, are occasioned by damage;
- in over 25% of all cases by the need for redecoration;
- the average amount of a deposit covered by the Scheme is £1,079;
- the average disputed amount is £601;

So make sure you are present and take the check-in inspection very seriously!

Regarding cleanliness – do take a note of all the stains when you move in to your new place. It would be reasonable to take photographic evidence just so there would be no misunderstandings when you are moving out. And keep it clean!

Chelsea

30-year-old architect from Australia got the home she wanted for the budget of £200 per week – a 1-bed flat in Brackenbury Village, just beyond Shepherd’s Bush in west London. Telegraph reports:

“The rent was more than I could afford,” she says, “but Jo Eccles of the specialist property hunters Sourcing Property, negotiated hard and knocked £120 off the monthly rent. She also went through the inventory and managed to talk the landlord into putting in a new bathroom, together with all sorts of little things that needed doing. I love the flat, which is really spacious and extremely good value. Before I met Jo, I was looking at studios and didn’t think I could afford a one-bedroom.”

Sourcing Property charges a fee of £500 for two months’ search and the equivalent of one month’s rent (no less than £1,250) on success.

Telegraph: Renting property: How much would you pay to rent this home?

Globrix – “Where every new week brings new features”

Clicking on the new Details & Trends tool will open a page full of valuable information and shortcuts.

We can now:

- twitter the property with one click;
- see lists of nearby schools, transport and local businesses, powered by Qype;
- see the unique Globrix URL on the address bar;
- see how much the property we are renting is worth;
- see for how long the property has been up on the website.

Check it out yourself at Globrix London rentals.