Winkworth estate agents say they have seen a 30% increase in rentals activity from 2007. At the same time sales transactions decreased 50%.

Photo: Debenhams, Oxford Street

There’s a big Christmas sale over at Jacob Fox!

The banner says the rents have come down up to £100 per week but I just saw one apartment’s price cut by £125! Not bad!

Click here to see the list of more than 400 rentals in the majority of East London and parts of South East London. Their offices are in Canary Wharf E14 and Wapping E1W.

More discounts from estate agents!

Hudsons offers rent free period from the time a tenant moves in up to and including 31.12.2008 for selected properties. Not too many days left but even if it’s just a day - you’ll feel good about a bit of saving during this expensive month (unless you’re making the gifts yourself this year=wise choice).

Hudsons has rentals in Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury, Soho, Covent Garden and Marylebone. Click here to jump to their website.

DOUGLAS & GORDON Kensington Office
Address: 22 Gloucester Road, London SW7 4RB
Click here to see D&G properties for rent in Kensington

What’s for rent?

Kensington features a good range of property to rent, mostly in period properties. In general, rental prices range from £400 per week for a one bedroom flat up to £5000 per week for good sized houses.

Why do people want to rent accommodation in Kensington?

Emily Nicholl (Associate Director, lettings) says “They like the fact that it’s quiet and residential, with good restaurants and quiet garden squares. Most of our tenants work in the city and so they appreciate the excellent transport links from Gloucester Road Tube station.”

(c) tfl.gov.uk

(c) W.A. Ellis

“It is still generally being reported that properties are not letting, are falling in value and that there are no new tenants coming into the market. This is absolutely not true. We are a team of 18 here at W. A. Ellis in Knightsbridge and we are all working at full capacity and have as many enquiries as we had this time last year,” says Lucy Morton, Managing Partner in charge of Lettings at W.A. Ellis.

We have never used their services before but know that they usually have very good quality photos of their properties, making the search so enjoyable. That’s definitely one of the reasons they are so busy - good presentation sells!

They are also one of the few agencies in London who have photos of their employees on their site. I feel it makes the company more trustworthy. See the people at W.A. Ellis.

W.A. Ellis covers all prime central London and you are welcome to check out their rental offers here.

Hamptons has decided to offer renters a Christmas discount for the month of December!

Sign a tenancy agreement with them before 31st Dec and you will get 50% off the first month’s rent.

Not all properties apply but all those that do have a confirmation in the ad.

Jump to Hamptons lettings.

Inspired by the 20 marketing tips from Belvoir Lettings at PropertyOwl’s place.

Here is what we would add to that list:

The 1st photo has to stand out!

There are tons of ads renters have to go through when searching for the right property. If my experienced head is usually literally spinning after an hour of intensive browsing - just imagine the pain new Londoners have to go through. A good first photo would make the search so much more enjoyable but it’s not the only reason why more attention should be paid on that first photo.

You might think that the address is enough to make the renter open your ad but is it true when it comes to those who know nothing about London? Or those who speak very little English? This group is very sensitive to that first photo on the long list of properties.

Take time to think about how to make the first photo so good, that it works like banner that says - LOOK AT ME! It will pay off, mark my words.

Also, changing the first photo after it has been hanging up for too long, could a good idea as well, as it might attract a click from someone who has dismissed the ad before.

The last request would be - please pay attention to details. If there is absolutely nothing else to show, just typical rooms and furniture, then maybe you can find a detail that would intrigue us to open the ad.

A few thoughts on what impact a not so good first photo would have:

POOR QUALITY
I have noticed that at some point, when browsing the listings, I would start ignoring properties that have the first photo in very bad quality (blurry, verticals off, odd colours). What this says to me is that no-one really cares about the property. Not now, and probably not after I move in…

NO PHOTO
Ads with no photo belong to the 20th century. Those ads spell “trouble”. Either the apartment is not ready, the agent has not seen it, it’s in a really bad condition, etc.

COMPANY LOGO AS PHOTO
Equals to no photo. Pass!

DIDN’T I JUST LOOK AT THIS?
Photo of the red brick building exterior, empty room, just some room with vanilla-coloured walls - the property can go unnoticed if I don’t know the address.

COPY-PASTE
There is this great apartment for rent at Park Street in Mayfair, which some 3 agents are advertising. All 3 first photos in the list have been taken from the same angle. Nice pictures but one of them could do better! Right now it is just to obvious that there are many agents advertising the same property, and noone seems to bother with marketing although it is quite an expensive apartment.

Guess why I would open all these 3 ads below, as listed in Globrix.

1. Great view. I am intrigued to see more.
2. Looks very interesting, even if it is not to my taste. I want to have a closer look at the details. If there was a photo of the exterior, I would have opened it maybe at a 50/50 chance.
3. Interesting angle of the entrance. Obviously they know how to point out the good points, and I wonder how they present the interior.

In general I would have to say that the situation is not too bad with the first photos, and I’m not complaining too much. It’s just that there’s so much unused potential:)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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)

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!

Have you ever been stood up by a letting agent?

The letting agent…has just rang. They forgot us. So I’ve re-scheduled them for Friday. Only time will tell if they’ll be here, I know I won’t. That’ll teach them!

Dicimac

Chard website sc: 4-bed duplex with private roof terrace in South Kensington

Estate agent Chard has put up asked and achieved rent rates of their South-Kensington office (Old Brompton Road) for October 2008.

Type, asked price per week, achieved price per week
1. Studio flat £175 asked  £175achieved
2. Studio flat £325 asked £295 achieved
3. 1-bedroom flat £395 asked £370 achieved
4. 1-bedroom flat £260 asked £260 achieved
5. 2-bedroom flat £550 asked £500 achieved
6. 2-bedroom flat £595 asked £550 achieved
7. 3-bedroom flat £2300 asked £2000 achieved
21 more…

Only 6 out of 28 rents remained the same, 1 went up, and 21 were negotiated down.

See also: Chard Compares Asked & Achieved Prices