ARLA has released the results of their Members Survey of the Private Rented Sector Second Quarter 2008 (*pdf). A couple of interesting things that letting agents say:

- Average weighted rental returns for houses are down from 5.0% to 4.8% compared with three months ago, once again reversing the change seen in the previous quarter, whilst the equivalent figure for flats is also down from 5.0% to 4.8%, this time more than reversing the earlier change.

- Average void period has fallen to 3.2 weeks (22 days) from 3.4 weeks (24 days) in the first quarter,

- Tenants remain in the same property for a period of 16.3 months on average, a figure which is up slightly from 16.1 months in the 1st quarter.

- 17% of their lettings are to immigrants with 15% being to immigrants from EU countries and immigrant tenants are most likely to be encountered by those managing properties in Prime Central London and least likely to be encountered by those in the Rest of the UK.

- Nearly 2/3 of ARLA members (64%) say that it is either impossible, very difficult or quite difficult to obtain references on immigrants from new EU member states although this is much less likely to be the case for those managing properties in Prime Central London.

- 34% of landlords (down from 37% three months ago) are unaware of tenancy deposit protection but in the case of tenants, this figure rises to 50% (down from 55%).

- 7 out of 10 landlords (70%, up from 66% three months ago) are members of the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (supported by ARLA, the NAEA and RICS) with only a few having joined other tenancy deposit protection organisations. 6% of landlords (down from 8% three months ago) are unaware of the need to join one of these organisations.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 9:47 pm and is filed under For Tenant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.