Headlines from Knight Frank‘s Prime Central London Rental Index for March 2012:

- Rents fell a further 0.1% in March, and have been falling since October 2011
- The six consecutive monthly falls total just 0.8%
- Q1 rents are still 1.2% higher than they were in Q1 2011
- Prices in the £500 to £1,500 per week band performed better than the £1,500+ sector

Download the full report here

Time to negotiate your rent down!

Prime Central London rents fell by a further 0.6% in the first quarter of the year from £1,043 per week to £1,032 at the end of 2011, translating into an annual saving of £572, reports property consultants Cluttons in its new research report London View – Q1 2012.

Lynn Hilton, partner for residential lettings, said, “The remarkable growth in rental values seen last year could not continue and this return to the trend trajectory in values is bringing the market back to a more stable level. While there is considerable economic uncertainty, we don’t anticipate a drastic reduction in rents as demand is still high, but Central London’s tenants will undoubtedly welcome increased choice and negotiating power.”

1. The landlord or agent must protect the deposit within 30 days from the start of the tenancy. The deadline used to be 14 days.
2. The landlord or agent must give the prescribed information to the tenant within 30 days from the start of the tenancy. Same penalties as for non protection apply even though they may have properly protected the deposit.
3. The financial penalty for not protecting the deposit has been changed from 3 times the amount of the deposit to between 1 and 3 times the deposit to give the Courts more discretion as to the level of the financial penalty imposed for non-compliance.
4. The landlords can no longer retrospectively protect the deposit once the tenancy has ended.
5. Section 21 notice cannot be served to you if a deposit has not been protected within the 30 day period (with some exceptions).

For a more detailed explanation of the change from the DPS Blog.

What’s the funniest thing you’ve seen whilst in the role?
A landlord had walked around their rental property in bare feet, gathering the dust and crumbs from the floor, then sent us the picture of her feet as evidence that the tenant had not cleaned the floor.

Read the full interview…

Quite a few London letting agents are asking landlords not to jump on the Olympic bandwagon but stay put with the good long-term tenants. Short-lets could potentially mean great fees for agents so we doubt they would be campaigning against it if they didn’t think it really was too risky.

Property consultants Cluttons confirms that there is little evidence that landlords are hoping to cash in on Olympic demand, with the vast majority focusing on keeping good tenants in place amid uncertainty over the job market and the wider economy.

Lynn Hilton, partner for residential lettings, said: “There is some nervousness in the market from both landlords and tenants, with both parties keen to make compromises in order to renew contracts and avoid returning to the market.

“It is still unclear the extent to which landlords will benefit from high value, short-term lets over the Olympic period, but at the moment those who have good quality tenants in place are looking at the bigger picture and focusing on securing ongoing Shorthold Tenancy Agreements, thus reducing the risk of void periods.”

Here’s what an average 2-bed in Westminster costs – £2,383 per month/£550 per week. The salary you earn should really be £6,810 as the rent shouldn’t take up more than 35% of your pre-tax salary.

Rent Watch London, part of Shelter’s Homes for London campaign, found that a London family would need to take home almost £3,500 each month, equivalent to a yearly pre-tax salary of £52,000. In eight London boroughs, including Hackney and Tower Hamlets, families would need to earn more than £60,000 a year. The cheapest 2-bedrooms are in the borough of Bexley – £800 per month.

With the typical London household income less than £35,000, Shelter is warning that growing numbers of families are at crisis point, paying up to half of their income in rent each month as they struggle to continue living and working in the capital.

Click here to see average rents vs normal salary numbers and sign the petition if you want to support Shelter in doing something about the crazy rental prices.

Earlier this month credit reference agency Experian announced that by the end of 2012 millions of tenants would start seeing rent payments data appear on their credit file. This information would have been used to help banks and building societies when deciding whether to lend them money. Tenants sharing a flat together could get financially linked if they were on the same tenancy agreement.

This meant another flatmate living with you could damage your credit file if they had a history of bad debt or never paid their rent on time. When applying for future loans, mortgages etc Experian could delve in to the files of flatmates that are financially linked to you and this could ultimately damage your application.

But after public pressure Experian announced they got it wrong and abandoned plans to ‘financially link’ tenants on the same tenancy agreement.

Gareth Pugh the director of flatshare website Flatmaterooms.co.uk said “Financially linking tenants would have been bad for the flatshare industry with tenants thinking twice about flatsharing in case the other tenant damaged their credit file.”

“We had concerned members with questions like ‘should I move out if my flatmate owes rent & bills?’ and ‘my flatmate has pay day loans which he hasn’t paid, will that affect me?.”

Experian spokesman James Jones said: “One advantage of making a very early announcement is to listen to people’s views and take these into consideration.

“It is now clear this would be inappropriate in many cases, due to the nature of many joint tenancy arrangements.”

“As a result, it is not now our intention to create financial links on credit reports from rental data.”

“The shift towards Rental Britain shows little sign of slowing in the near future. Britons paid in excess of £48 billion in rent to private and institutional landlords. This figure is forecast to rise to exceed £70 billion by 2016.”

Click here to download the brand new Rental Britain report by Savills and Rightmove.

Battersea/Clapham SW11 postcode area saw the highest rental price growth in 2011 with an impressive 28,8% rise, revealed estate agent Hampstead International after analyzing more than 6500 rental listings on Primelocation.com.

Read the full report here.

Tomorrow, before you change the clocks – take a moment to test your smoke alarms.

The Fire Kills campaign is asking people to make this potentially life-saving move now if you haven’t made this a habit already. The alarms should be tested at least once a week!

There were 31,477 accidental fires in the home in England last year, which resulted in 214 deaths and 6,526 injuries as just half of all householders who own a smoke alarm say that they test it to make sure it’s working on a regular basis.

A working smoke alarm can buy you valuable time to get out, stay out and call 999.

Read more about smoke alarms.

Knight Frank‘s reports that the average prime London rental prices have fallen by a further 0.2% in February. The rents have now turned negative on a three-monthly basis, down 0.4% and are now close to June 2011 levels.

The current round of rental price falls relates to weaker conditions in the central London employment market, argues Liam Bailey, Knight Frank’s Head of Residential Research.

The rapid rebound in rental levels between mid-2009 and late-2011, when rents rose by 26.9%, was driven by a revival of the central London economy, following the ravages of the credit crunch and global recession.

By October last year, rents had recovered all losses sustained in 2008 and early 2009, and hit an all-time high at 1.8% above their previous peak in March 2008.

Further growth from here was dependent on continued demand-side expansion. But with job losses in the City beginning in Q3 last year, demand began to fall back a little in October.

While employment prospects in central London are still weak, there are some encouraging indicators for landlords. The volume of new tenant registrations rose 23% in the three months to February compared to the same period a year earlier.

While supply has also risen, it has done so at a slower rate. New property instructions are higher by only 13% over the same period.

An additional measure confirms conditions in the market are beginning to improve in favour of landlords, with the ratio of new applicants to new instructions rising from 3.1 to 3.5 over the past year.

Yet again the strongest part of the market remains the lower price ranges, with average rents in the £500 to £1,500 per week bracket down by only 0.1% in the three months to February, compared to a decline of 0.9% in the £1,500+ per week bracket.

Tim Hyatt, Head of Knight Frank residential lettings, comments, “After such a considerable rise in rents and the Christmas slow down which was endured pre and post-Christmas, it is not surprising that rents have dropped by a marginal amount over the course of the last three months.

“Corporate employment is key to the rental market but it is too early in the year to predict the true picture of what rents will do over the course of the next 6-12 months. We are already seeing demand beginning to pick up and most of our offices are reporting the healthiest instruction book yet. I am sure these properties will let quickly and rents will continue to rise, subject to no further cut backs within the City.”

Knight Frank’s Central London rental offers.

Olympic teams and their fans that base themselves in their ‘national house’ locations – close to their embassies or where the majority of their London residents live – are paying impressive premiums for short-let accommodation according to Hamptons International.

The Great Britain team, which will base itself in Stratford will pay the highest premium (240 per cent) for short-let accommodation close to the stadium. Homeowners of an average two bedroom apartment in Stratford who usually rent their properties for £380 a week can charge an average of £912 during the Olympics.

Lesley Cairns, Head of Lettings at Hamptons International says: “Opportunistic owners of good quality rental properties in and around ‘national house’ locations may be able to capitalize on the impressive Olympic premiums. Enquiries for short-term rental properties in London are set to speed up over the next few months and therefore now is the time to register with a short-let specialist such as Hamptons International to ensure your property is ready to let over the Olympic period.”

The Japanese team which is basing themselves in Mayfair (close to its embassy in Piccadilly, see photo above) will pay the highest average rent per week for a two bedroom apartment (£4,221) which represents a 110 per cent premium when compared with average long let rental prices. Areas such as Muswell Hill (The Netherlands) and Finsbury Park (Jamaica) represent the best value for money with premiums of around 50 per cent.

Adam Challis, Head of Research at Hamptons International says: “It’s likely that Prime Central London will form a base for many of the Olympic visitors due to the high concentration of ‘national houses’. Mayfair is expected to outperform as the rarity of Olympic short-lets will create significant price pressure in an already popular short-let market. SW7 (Kensington) will be a big wind down/party area and a popular base – Team USA will also have a large entourage in SW7 that will put demand pressure on available properties. Those looking for value should consider areas in North London where the over-ground train directly reaches Stratford.”

See also: Map Of London Renters By Nationality

Currell, the estate agent with offices in  Clerkenwell, Hackney, Victoria Park and Islington, reports that the tenant demand has grown significantly compared to the previous year:

January saw us create 13% more tenancies than January 2011, whilst February looks like it’s going to be 22% up on February 2011.

The early months of any year are typically amongst the quietest in lettings, but we’re experiencing very strong tenant demand. Our feeling is that there is not enough lettings stock to satisfy this demand; applicants registering with us relaying this to us in the way that they always do, “no one’s got anything!” The only caveat to this being that the upper end of the market (+£700 per week) is a little quiet, but this is a seasonal norm and we expect it to pick up over the next few weeks.

If you are considering purchasing another, or your first, rental property we can honestly say that now is as good a time as it has been in recent years – if not the best. New build apartments and houses will normally provide a far stronger yield than period properties (certainly at this precise moment in time), whilst they also typically fulfil the main requirements of most tenants – clean, contemporary accommodation.

Check out Currell’s rental offers.

Property portal Zoopla.co.uk has announced a competition to give £5,000 away towards someone’s rent or mortgage payments!

The competition involves spotting any of the cabs with Zoopla as around the capital and correctly submitting the details displayed on the side of the cab on the portal’s online entry page – http://www.zoopla.co.uk/spot-the-cab/.

Each Zoopla-branded purple taxi is unique and displays property data for a different part of the capital, designed to help give Londoners better insight into the local property market. And with hundreds of these cabs on the streets, that gives each Londoner hundreds of chances to win.

There is no limit to the number of entries that someone can make, providing each entry is different, and the lucky cab-spotting winner will be selected via a prize draw of correct entries at the end of June and will receive £5,000 towards their rent or mortgage.

How to enter

1. Simply spot any Zoopla-branded cab on the streets of London
2. Make a note of the price data displayed on the side of the cab (in the white bubble)
3. Click here to submit your competition entry

Good luck!

Knight Frank’s Prime Central London Monthly Rental Index for January 2012 has just been released and here is what it says:

- Residential rents in prime central London property fell back by 0.2% in January, meaning rents are now 0.6% below their September 2011 peak

- Despite the recent monthly falls residential rents are still around 7% higher than a year ago

- The key drivers for the recent weaker residential rental performance in central London are: City of London job losses and, ultimately, affordability for tenants.

Liam Bailey, head of Residential Research at Knight Frank said: “Rental falls in winter are not uncommon, the employment market is quieter and less people are typically looking to move to new positions.

“However there are signs that the weakness in the City of London jobs market, where new employment vacancies are down 51% year-on-year at the current time (according to Morgan McKinley), is beginning to feed through to the rental sector.

“With the banking sector expected to deliver much lower bonuses in the first quarter of 2012 compared to last year, tenants who are building deposits for eventual entry to the housing market are looking to reduce their rental costs in the interim.

“Additionally rental budgets for corporate tenants, employees who have been relocated to London by their firms, have been cut back by anything up to 15% over the past 12 months.

“The other main driver helping to push rents lower is affordability. Tenants saw rents rise 27% in the two years to September 2011 – hitting all-time highs at that point. At best, disposable income even in central London, only rose by around 8% over the same period – landlords are having to accept that continually rising rents are not a fixture of the market.

“In terms of sub-market performance, across central London there is a particular shortage of prospective tenants looking in the mid-market, a definition which varies depending on the area, but is typically around £800 or £1,000 to £2,000 a week.

“Activity has been strongest at the lower end of the market and to a lesser extent, the top-end. The sub-£1,000 a week bracket has seen more demand recently as people have been tightening their budgets, with both individual tenants and companies housing corporate tenants.

“The £4,000+ per week bracket has also been active, especially in Belgravia and Knightsbridge with the arrival of a number of Russian tenants at this level of the market.

“Our view looking ahead is that rents will begin to rise slightly from the spring onwards. We are not expecting significant rises from here.”

Don’t pack your bags yet – short-term renting for the Games might not be worth the trouble! Homes & Property reports:

Six councils – Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster and Camden – are so concerned about “pop-up” hotels during the Games they insist residents must apply for planning permission before letting their homes for less than 90 days. This could cost up to £400, and your chances of success are limited.

Westminster, which is particularly strict on the matter, is hiring four extra council officers to hunt down homeowners illicitly letting their properties, and the penalty for transgression is a fine of up to £20,000 and a criminal record.

So far I have seen one planning application presented to Westminster Council. Will be interesting to see how many landlords actually do this properly, which is the only reasonable way, really.

Read the full article in Homes & Property

Property website Zoopla.co.uk has announced a fundraising partnership with national housing and homelessness charity Shelter, committing to raise at least £25,000 for this cause in 2012.

As part of their commitment to make a difference and raise awareness of the issues surrounding bad housing and homelessness, Zoopla will work closely with Shelter to help support their charitable efforts and will participate, donate directly and identify new opportunities to raise funds in 2012.

Zoopla employees have donated over £7,500 themselves already via payroll giving alone and committing to numerous events throughout the year, including Shelter’s annual Vertical Rush in early March, which involves scaling the 920 steps of Tower 42 in the City. Zoopla also plans to make fundraising for Shelter an integral part of the numerous trade events and awards it sponsors throughout the year including Lettings Live, the ESTAs and the Estate Agency of the Year Awards.

Alex Chesterman, Founder & CEO of Zoopla said: “Shelter does an outstanding job trying to help those have fallen on hard times. We recognise that charities like Shelter rely heavily on donations from businesses like ours and we are keen to do what we can. Our team are motivated and to meet or exceed the fundraising targets we have set for this year and to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.”

Shelter’s housing advice helpline 0808 800 4444 is open 8am-8pm Monday to Friday, 8am-5pm Saturday and Sunday.

Jackson-Stops & Staff have been instructed to market Winston Churchill’s former home at 11 Morpeth Mansions, Morpeth Terrace in London SW1. Churchill lived there for nine years from 1930-1939, writes Lettings Director Georgina Clark:

He acquired the apartment from Lloyd George (whose mistress lived there) and conducted many an important call from the famous study in the run-up to the Second World War and during the abdication crisis of Edward VIII over Mrs Simpson, which is portrayed in the new Madonna film WE.

The property has been refurbished to a high standard with beautiful oak floors and includes a small roof terrace with spectacular views.

It is available now, unfurnished, at a rental of £2,250 per week.

Click here for more details.

We are now receiving enquiries in their droves about lettings over the Olympic period from 27th July to 12th August or realistically from 20th July to 19th August. The Paralympic games start on 29th August until 9th September and so at the very best, the requirement will run from 20th July to 16th September. Interestingly, 90% of these enquiries are coming from landlords which tells a story in itself. At the moment there is very limited demand from tenants. Most prospective tenants will have booked their tickets and their flights/transport arrangements and you would have thought their accommodation too which is why the majority of the best hotels are fully occupied.

…

The major drawback is the void period running up to the let and more importantly, following the let. If long term investors jump on this Olympic bandwagon and launch their properties back on to the market in September, there is a strong risk that there will be a sudden surge in supply of properties available without the demand. We are already noticing a reduction in demand levels. I believe that the lettings market plateaued in October 2011 and in some areas is now marginally dropping. The reason for this change in market conditions is that the City is not employing its normal influx of expats and it is these tenants who underpin the lettings market.

…

These Olympic landlords will also need to apply for planning permission to let their property for less than 90 days. Without it, they are breaking the law and could be fined up to £20,000. The future sale of the property could also be affected as any enforcement notice will be registered as a legal charge and this may deter future buyers. A short let may also invalidate some insurance policies. If the rent is under £1923 per week, it will become an AST (Assured Shorthold Tenancy) and therefore a Section 21 Notice must be served. If the tenant refuses to leave, they may be able to stay for six months until Court proceedings can be initiated.

The final major risk is the wear and tear element. How can you be sure that the tenant will treat your property as their home during this short period? No deposit will cover the replacement value of furniture and fixtures and fittings, let alone any replacement of carpets or redecorations. All references on tenants should be checked carefully.

Read the full post here.

Want to know how safe is the area you plan to move to? The Home Office has just updated the interactive crime map at www.police.uk. The website now features incidents of crime and antisocial behaviour recorded at all train stations and railway networks across England and Wales.

Go to www.police.uk and enter the address into the search to see the map and details of the crimes. Note that in order to protect privacy, individual addresses are not pinpointed on the map. Crimes are mapped to an anonymous point on or near the road where they occurred.