Walking down the streets of central London you can see a lot of “Shop To Let” signs. One would think it must be a good time to rent commercial retail premises. According to the latest “Main Streets Across The World” report by Cushman & Wakefield, the prices in the capital haven’t fallen that much though.

In the UK, high street retail rents continued to soften around the country, falling by 2.4% over the year to June. However, the key streets in Central London have remained resilient and, indeed, rents have continued to increase in some locations in the capital. Moreover, the occupational market now appears to be showing signs of stabilising and, following a raft of retailer bankruptcies and administrations in early 2009, the worst of the retailer shakeout may now be over.

76 New Bond Street, Francesco Biasia store.

New Bond Street W1
Most expensive street in UK, ranking 6th in the world.
Rent: 5,885 EUR sq.m/yr

Oxford Circus

Oxford Street
Annual Rental Growth 2.9%
Rent 4,101 EUR sq.m/yr

Covent Garden
Annual Rental Growth 4.3%
Rent 3,550 EUR sq.m/yr

Brompton Road
Annual Rental Growth 0.0%
Rent 3,098 EUR sq.m/yr

Download the full report.

Search for commercial property for rent:
Convenient list of available shops with really good maps Shop Property
Commercial property for rent Primelocation

The decline in rents that we have seen since the middle of last year appears to be ending, declares Knight Frank in their latest residential market review. It will take some time for the level of rental stock to return to normal levels but a lot of ‘forced’ landlords have begun to slowly shift properties back into the sales market.

- The fall in central London rents continued into the early summer – Knight Frank’s prime London rental index confirms that for the three month period to the end of June 2009 rents fell by 1.9% on average. On an annual basis in June rents were 19.3% lower than they were in 2008.

- It has been more expensive properties that have borne the brunt of the rental falls – with rents on properties costing up to £500 per week falling only 11.3% over the year to June,
and those costing over £1,500 per week falling by 27.3% over the same period.

- Most central London sub-markets have been hit by falling rents. Chelsea and Kensington have been particularly affected with declines of over 26% in each area. Only the City – with a rental fall of just 9.7% over the past year – has been partially protected from the downturn. The City benefits from a high proportion of lower priced properties which have been better performers during the downturn.

- The autumn market is likely to be characterised by hard negotiations for landlords – but significant rental reductions from here are unlikely. The traditional busy September market could see the beginning of rental increases in some areas – as demand from new employees and their families comes into the market.

Click here to download the latest research from Knight Frank.

If you went to Soho Live this weekend you probably passed by this building, No.6 Greek Street, and saw the ad.

But if not, here it is:

Flat to let in the heart of Soho!

Greek Street leads to Soho Square, where the main festivities took place. More photos: RoR Streets – Greek Street W1

We’ve been contaced by French journalist Coline, who is doing a TV report about the London real estate market: property, and private renting market.

Here is what they are looking for:
- stories of people who have made great deals or are about to (like students renting a flat that would have been totally unaffordable last year).
- to see a negociation between a landlord and a tenant.
- new trends.

The interviews would take place next week.

Property portal FindaProperty.com has just published their new monthly index of residential letting prices.

Flood of Flats Hits the Capital’s Rental Market

- London continues to underperform the country as a whole, with steady declines in both asking rents and yields over the past 12 months.

- Rents have fallen by 6.0% or £102 since August 2008, while yields have declined from 5.09% to 4.49% over the same period.

- Declines in rents and yields are largely attributable to the oversupply of properties available to rent. Stock levels rose by 50% between August 2008 and August 2009, and the number of properties on the London rental market has increased for ten consecutive months (since October 2008) as homeowners have advertised properties for rent rather than attempting to sell them in a tough sales market.

- The London rental market differs from the rest of the country. It consists predominantly of flats, which account for 84% of rental property available on FindaProperty.com. By way of contrast, in the national rental market, houses outnumber flats by more than two to one. The Survey of English Housing indicates that 66% of renters in London live in flats, suggesting that there is an oversupply of flats on the market relative to houses. Indeed, the supply of flats on the rental market has risen by 18% over the past six months, while houses are up just 7.3%, based on

- Asking rents for flats have fallen by 7.4% or £111 pcm over the past year, from £1,509 to £1,398 pcm; while the decline of rents on houses was, in percentage terms, less than half that – £79 or 3.5%, with a fall from £2,270 to £2,191 between August 2008 and August 2009.

- The relative scarcity of houses to rent in the capital makes them more sought after, especially for families and other people who need or prefer a home with an independent entrance and a garden. Many people who in other circumstances would have purchased a house have been discouraged by lack of confidence or prevented by lack of finance, or may be waiting for prices to stabilise. In the meantime they rent.

- The excess supply of flats could also be exacerbated by the pick-up in activity in the sales market, with some existing renters taking the plunge as owner occupiers and vacating their flats.

- The borough-wide picture is mixed. The boroughs showing the largest declines are Greenwich, Haringey, Brent, Merton and Lewisham, all with a monthly decline of over 2%.

Download the full report here - FindaProperty.com Rental Index August 2009

Consider yourself a true gourmet?

Benham and Reeves has a selection of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments for rent in a newly refurbished Pegaso Building, situated opposite Jamie Oliver’s ‘Fifteen’ restaurant in Nile Street, Hoxton N1.

The development comprises 40 apartments and is located only 10 minutes walking distance from the square mile and provides easy access to great transport links to Kings Cross, Moorgate and Liverpool Street from the nearby Old Street underground station.

The following letting tariffs are currently avaliable:

1 bed apartments from £300 per week
2 bed apartments from £350 per week
3 bed apartments from £400 per week

With 1 bedroom apartments taking in 550 sq. ft of space, compared to your average 1 bedroom flat in the city which is 15% smaller, these Pegaso apartments offer contemporary living at very reasonable rents.

Each Pegaso apartment features open plan living space with full height windows and polished timber floors. Most apartments even include a balcony and are exceptionally furnished to the highest standard by interior designer company In:Style Direct, who are one of the leading names in the property interiors industry. The quality of the supplied furnishings have been an especially big hit with corporate tenants with some rentals being secured within 24 hours of being viewed.

Click here to see the interior photos.

Marc von Grundherr, Lettings Director at Benham and Reeves comments “With so many apartments on the market, particularly in new builds, a property needs to stand out from the crowd. The apartments at Pegaso have been interior designed throughout to the highest quality with contemporary style furnishings and soft furnishings supplied by ani-M,a highly accredited brand that also sells in Harrods”.

Jump to Pegaso Building page @ Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings website.

Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen in Nile Street, Hoxton N1.

We recently received a comment on our website, which perfectly illustrates one of the main problems tenants face when renting through the letting agent.

Hi there, I’m a 21 year old university student who is very worried about the risks involved when signing up to a contract with an estate agent. A year ago, naive me and three other students went to view a flat along with a representative from the estate agent. The four bed property was well presented, but it also was well above our price-range. The representative knew this but assured us that she could probably “have a word” and “sort something out”. It screamed sophistication, independence and freedom! We really did like the place and she knew it. I started to feel uncomfortable as she sensed the excitement within the group, but a few well rehearsed lines were slipped in here and there and soon we were all convinced that there were was another potential buyer on the way who was very interested, and if we wanted to secure the flat we must place a deposit before 5 p.m. that day.

Off we ran to the nearest cash point, withdrew a total of £280 from our precious student loans and straight to the agency. They had our contracts ready and waiting still warm from the printer. I can’t recall the exact amount they had wanted from us, but I do know we were being charged for credit checks, even though all of us had opened our very first student accounts that same year. We were also being ripped off for the cost of inventories. There must have been a lot of other ‘expenses’ as the grand total per student including our deposits came up to over £1200 each. They had somehow claimed £400 for their “services.” It didn’t matter that in order for us to pay the rent, we would have had to up the hours from our part-time student jobs and almost completely neglect our degrees. Luckily someones relative intervened and we pulled out. We only ever got £140 back, which we shared between us.

This year I’ll be going through another property hunt. If you have any advice on how we can avoid this sort of thing, please let us know.

Eagerly awaiting a reply.

J.

Our Answer:

An agent should provide clear information on what costs would be incurred, including any potential future financial liabilities to the agent that are reasonably foreseeable and quantifiable, says the statement on the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) website. It is totally understandable that as a first time renter you had no idea that letting agent services can cost hundreds of pounds – there was no word about it on the advertisement, nor the agent’s website. No wonder one feels being deceived and trapped when the bill is presented only after there is no going back.

Should you decide to go through the letting agent again, please make sure you get all the expense details before the viewing takes place. Ask how much exactly do they charge for their services for the property you are interested in. Write these numbers down and have them with you for the letting agent to confirm on the site, should you decide to pay the holding deposit there and then.

Don’t hesitate to complain to the associations and schemes the estate agent belongs to if you feel you have not been treated right. ARLA’s E-mail is info [at] arla.co.uk. The Property Ombudsman complaint forms are available HERE.

If you want to avoid letting agent costs altogether, you can find some links to sites that have offers from private landlords HERE. Please note that here are many fraudsters advertising on these sites, especially during the coming busy months. Read Gumtree advice on how to stay safe HERE.

Online room rental website FlatMateRooms.co.uk recently re-launched introducing a new pricing structure, introducing a totally FREE advertising option.

Whilst most companies in the room rental market work like a dating website where members register free but have to pay when they want to contact another member, Flatmaterooms didn’t follow this path and allow you to advertise free. They have also introduced a great value paid option too called Jump The Queue.

Both options are explained below:

1. The Free Option allows members to advertise rooms to rent or room wanted adverts free but only Jump the Queue members will have access to your contact details in the first 7 days after that everyone has access to your details.

2. The Jump The Queue option upgrades your membership and lets you

- Contact the newest adverts 7 days before anyone else giving you first choice
- Makes all your adverts featured
- Gives you a higher ranking
- Gets you twice as much interest
- All members get access to your adverts from day one not having to wait 7 days
- 30 days Jump The Queue Membership costs £10

Landlords can advertise up to 3 properties for free.

FlatMateRooms website also has a full advice centre covering over 40 subjects, an easy map search facility, you can upload photos even a video.

We like the clean look of the site and it really is very easy to use, so why not give it a try – jump to FlatMateRooms.co.uk

Click here to read our interview for The Rat & Mouse.

Estate agent Winkworth has just released an interesting Summer 2009 Price Guide for London and UK property, revealing the minimum and maximum rents for the properties their offices have dealt with in Summer 2009 and 2008.

One cannot say that the prices have fallen throughout the city in this past year – in some areas the rents for some properties have actually gone up:

Harringay 1-bed flat:
Summer 2009 min£760 max £1,040
Summer 2008 min £750 max £1,000

Edgware Studio Flat:
Summer 2009 min£600 max £750
Summer 2008 min £500 max £675

St John’s Wood 2-bed flat:
Summer 2009 min £1,700 max £2,600
Summer 2008 min £1,200 max £2,600

Still, in most cases the minimum price has remained unchanged while the maximum has taken a more significant fall:

Kensington 2-bed flat:
Summer 2009 min£1,500 max £3,500
Summer 2008 min £1,500 max £10,000

Islington 2-bed flat:
Summer 2009 min £1,200 max £3,000
Summer 2008 min £1,200 max £3,500

Highgate 2-bed flat:
Summer 2009 min £1,085 max £1,300
Summer 2008 min £1,148 max £2,166

Click here to download the full guide.

How exciting!

Jacob Fox, the estate agent with offices in Canary Wharf E14 and Wapping E1, will soon open their new website.

We’re assuming it won’t be long now, as …

… this is how the picture on the front page looked just 2 weeks ago.

Jump to Jacob Fox website.

Only 31 days left to enter SpareRoom’s fantastic contest where one lucky UK flat sharer will win a whole year’s free rent!

Click here to register!

Fresh out of the oven – the new FindaProperty.com Rental Index for July 2009 has just been delivered.

Rents rise in all regions month-on-month, except for Scotland (-0.1%) and London (-0.9%), which buck the national trend.

- London is currently behind the national trend, with rental stock still rising (+2% between June and July) and rents falling (-0.9%). This is likely to be caused by falling demand, as the London market is impacted strongly by lower employment levels and a sharp fall in the number of new graduates seeking homes to rent, and rising supply, as landlords letting to students find their properties vacated in early summer at the end of the academic year.

- A surprising 3.3% jump in flat asking prices in the London sales market this month could entice flat landlords to move across and attempt to sell in the next couple of months, which may halt the relentless increase in flat rental stock.

London boroughs – the best & worst performers, Findaproperty.com Rental Index July 2009

- In terms of boroughs, there continues to be significant volatility in rents, although more expensive boroughs for rentals seem to be faring somewhat better than the cheapest ones. The majority of the top five saw rises this month (Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham, and Richmond upon Thames), while all the five cheapest boroughs (including Barking & Dagenham, Bexley and Waltham Forest) saw falling rents.

Download the full report here > FindaProperty.com Rental Index July 2009

Flatmates from Fulham, Putney and surrounding areas gather tonight at 7pm @ SoBar on Fulham Broadway!

* 75-100 flatmates at every event
* Meet many potential flatmates in the time it would normally take to meet one
* Bring a friend and start your night out here

Click here to register yoyrself if you want to take part in it.

Benham and Reeves Residential Lettings reports that the enquiry levels are up, with a clear rise in demand from overseas tenants looking for a home to rent in London:

“The lettings market is in full summer mode and demand for rental properties is strong throughout our eight London offices. In particular, we’re seeing an increase in enquiries from prospective international tenants, which may indicate that multi-national organisations are starting to relocate staff again.” reports Lettings Director Marc von Grundherr.

“Conditions have changed dramatically though and this is definitely now a tenant’s market. All our offices are very busy but tenants are looking for good deals.” continues Marc. “In fact, rents have come down by 10%-30% depending on the type of property and tenants are taking full advantage of this. The last five years have seen a landlord’s market but the market is very different now and landlords need to recognise this in order to minimise void periods.”

Read more HERE.