© Knight Frank, 4 bedroom flat £25,000 per week in One Hyde Park

Knightsbridge is officially the most expensive area to rent a flat in London – seven out of ten priciest London rentals are situated just there. The Wellington Court penthouse, which has been on the market on and off for more than a year, now shares the top spot with two apartments from the new One Hyde Park building.

1.-3. £25,000 One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge SW1, 4 bedrooms available through Knight Frank
1.-3. £25,000 One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge SW1, 4 bedrooms via Savills
1.-3. £25,000 Wellington Court, Knightsbridge SW1, 6 bedrooms via Harrods Estates
4. £18,000 Cadogan Gardens, Chelsea SW3, 3 bedrooms via Foxtons
5. £17,500 One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge SW1, 3 bedrooms via Savills
6. £17,000 Hans Place, Knightsbridge SW1, 4 bedrooms via Plaza Estates
7. £15,000 Lennox Gardens, Knightsbridge SW1, 3 bedrooms via Cameron Pearson
8. £15,000 Duchess of Bedfords Walk W8, 5 bedrooms via Hamptons International
9. £12,500 Lowndes Square, Knightsbridge SW1, 3 bedrooms via Foxtons
10. £12,000 Nile Street, Old Street N1, 3 bedrooms via Foxtons

Sources: PrimeLocation.com, Zoopla, FindaProperty.com, Rightmove

Spotted a flat that should be on this list? Leave the link to the comments or E-mail us info at royalsofrent.com.

Read also: Most Expensive London Flats For Rent August 2011

Are you struggling to find somewhere to rent? Having problems with your landlord? Ask your questions on the Guardian website and have the panel of experts from Citizens Advice, Propertywide and Spareroom to answer. Advice will be given online on Tuesday from 12.30pm to 1.30pm.

Post your question in the comments below this article.

Notting Hill still has it! Although the weekly price of the last month’s most expensive house has been slashed by £5,000, the Chepstow Villas rental remains at the top of our list.

1.-2. £45,000 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill W11, 6 bedrooms available through Foxtons
1.-2. £45,000 Chepstow Villas, Notting Hill W11, 7 bedrooms via Foxtons
3.-4. £40,000 Brick Street, Mayfair W1, 7 bedrooms via Savills
3.-4. £40,000 Mayfair W1, 14 bedrooms via Strutt & Parker
5.-6. £30,000 Holland Park W11, 13 bedrooms via MC’GLashans
5.-6. £30,000 Eaton Square, Belgravia SW1, 7 bedrooms via Knight Frank
7. £25,000 Crescent Grove, Clapham SW4, 5 bedrooms via Foxtons
8.-9. £20,000 Wilton Place, Belgravia SW1, 6 bedrooms via Cameron Pearson
8.-9. £20,000 Wimpole Street, Marylebone W1, 5 bedrooms via Foxtons
10.-18. £15,000 Pembroke Gardens, Kensington W8, 8 bedrooms via Thakerays
10.-18. £15,000 Harley Gardens, South Kensington SW10, 7 bedrooms via Cameron Pearson
10.-18. £15,000 Cheyne Place, Chelsea SW3, 7 bedrooms via Cameron Pearson
10.-18. £15,000 Ovington Square, Knightsbridge SW3, 6 bedrooms via Foxtons
10.-18. £15,000 Avenue Road, St John’s Wood NW8, 6 bedrooms via Aston Chase
10.-18. £15,000 Eaton Square, Belgravia SW1, 8 bedrooms via Harrods Estates
10.-18. £15,000 Clarendon Road, Notting Hill W11, 5 bedrooms via DomusNova
10.-18. £15,000 Wilton Crescent, Belgravia SW1, 7 bedrooms via Knight Frank
10.-18. £15,000 Hanover Terrace, Regent’s Park NW1, 6 bedrooms via Bargets

Sources: PrimeLocation.com, Zoopla, FindaProperty.com, Rightmove

See also:
Most Expensive London Houses For Rent August 2011

Did you know that besides checking your references, the landlords and letting agents will also do a search on you in Google? We strongly advise you to set your personal photos in Facebook private as they could be misinterpreted and cost you the flat you were hoping to rent!

Read also: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr: Cleaning up your act

Estate agent Knight Frank is in talks about letting out a 10,000 sq ft 5-bedroom property in the new One Hyde Park building with the rental price likely to be a staggering £45,000 a week, reveals PrimeLocation.com. That means the tenant would be paying £195,000 per month, £2,340.000 per year and this probably does not include the bills.

There are altogether 80 flats in this new building overlooking Hyde Park but if you think the owners would have problems renting them all out then read this.

Meanwhile we will keep an eye on Knight Frank’s offers and hope they finish the talks before we reveal this month’s most expensive properties for rent in London.

“The only problem with living privately in central London is that eventually you will run out of organs to sell for rent money.”

- The Student Room guide to renting in the private sector for LSE students.

Estate agent Douglas & Gordon‘s latest London lettings market comment:

“There is a glimmer of hope for hard pressed tenants in London as although the number of applicants has increased in August, supply levels are increasing and we are expecting to see rental prices stabilising.”

“Moving into the autumn market, we are seeing more buy-to-let landlords. Existing landlords are holding onto their investments and opting to re-finance as demand for rental properties continues to increase, there are no void periods and good capital growth is predicted.

“With the stock market continuing to be volatile, investors are continuing to see the London property market as a stable and safe place to invest in.”

Any investors out there still hesitating? Now is the time to become a landlord in London!

Source: Douglas & Gordon: London Barometer August 2011

Homes & Property columnist accidental landlord Victoria has recently been looking for a letting agent to help her manage a rental flat. One agent did not fail to surprise:

An agent who contacted me via my ad on Gumtree offered to take over the management of the flat, and he said he’d guarantee the rent for a year. “How come?” I asked. “I evict anyone who’s more than seven days late with their rent,” he said. “Simple. Don’t bother serving them notices and stuff. Just get rid of them. I put a special clause in the contract saying I can kick them out in a week. See, I’m not like other agents.” Err, no, hopefully not.

Meanwhile, the government has announced that there are no plans to introduce regulation on the private rental sector.

The latest market overview by estate agent W A Ellis sheds some light on how busy the London rental market currently is.

Lucy Morton, senior partner and head of lettings at W A Ellis, comments:

“July and August can traditionally be quiet months in the lettings calendar followed by September heralding a blitz of activity. This year has been a very different story – in both months, activity and completed lettings have been 50% up on this time last year and we go into autumn with this continued frenzy of activity.

“Demand continues to outweigh supply and the press is once again highlighting the fact that we are well into generation rent with the average person having to wait 10 years to save a deposit for a purchase. We not only have those tenants who are forced to rent for financial reasons, but also the frustrated purchaser who is simply unable to find a suitable property to purchase due to the lack of stock. In addition, High Net Worth students arrived in London in their droves this month, together with the late comers into the family market who have left it to the last minute to get settled.

“This has led to heightened demand in the rental market and as such, bidding wars are common place. It is increasingly very much a landlord’s market with landlords dictating the terms. Void periods are well below the 3 week mark on a desirable property presented in first class condition and tenants are paying substantial increases to stay in their current homes.

“The short terms lettings market also continues to see heightened activity due to the impending Olympics. With the major hotels being fully booked, there is a rush to reserve short term lettings from next July at as much as six times the normal lettings values. It remains to be seen how many landlords will be tempted, but they should be aware that they may well be in breach of planning regulations which stipulate no lettings under 90 days. Our concern is that some may fall into the trap of making a short term gain and suffer heavy wear and tear on their property with voids either side and turning away a stable, long term let.”

Source: W.A. Ellis

Watch this BBC Fake Britain story on the growing problem of fake landlords taking advantage of innocent home-owners and tenants.

Landlord Property Investment blog has some great tips for tenants who want to make sure they are not dealing with a fake landlord HERE.

Listen up all first time renters in London!

The websites that allow private landlords to advertise homes to rent are currently full of fake rental flat advertisements!

Look at this fake ad above. We know this flat doesn’t really exist because you would never get a four bedroom flat for that price in Bayswater W2. So make sure you know the prices in the area you are looking to rent in. You can run a check at London Rent Map. If the rent is incredibly low then don’t even bother contacting the advertiser.

You should also try and Google the description of the property. Con artists are so shameless they will copy the text from some estate agent’s ad. For example, the text in the ad above coincidentally also describes a flat for sale by estate agent Foxtons.

Here is what happens when you answer one of these ads, via Billings Gazette:

When people call about it, the scammer says he or she lives out of town and asks the prospective renter to wire first and last month’s rent along with a security deposit. They then usually promise to send the property keys upon receipt of the money, but they never arrive. When you pay for something with a credit card or check, there’s at least some sort of trail. But when you wire the money, they pick it up and, poof, it’s gone.

September is the most active month for scammers as there are a lot of people desperately looking for rentals. Read more about all kinds of London rent scams…

Letting agents have come up with a SAFEagent mark that makes it easy for tenants and landlords to identify agents who are in Client Money Protection insurance schemes. This means that the agent has a separate designated client account where your money is held completely separate from the operating funds of the firm.

There are several Client Money Protection insurance schemes operated by ARLA/NFOPP, the Law Society, NALS and RICS to which agents voluntarily belong. The scope of these schemes varies and you should always ask your agent for full details of the scheme of which they are a part.

Find a SAFE agent.

Each year one of the most desired areas to live in London turns into a one big party place – Notting Hill Carnival is the largest festival celebration of its kind in Europe (held since 1966).

How did the residents feel about the event taking place outside their homes? We let the photos do the talking!

Westbourne Grove on the first day of the festival on Sunday 28th of September 2011.

Great view to the parade route on Westbourne Grove

Parading on Westbourne Grove

St Stephen’s Gardens

Sound system at the back of one of the many trucks on the streets playing Caribbean rhythms.

Chepstow Road

Parade on Chepstow Road

Clearly loving it!

Residents pull up chairs and enjoy the music in privacy of the gated mews.

Some residents offer toilet service for one or two pounds.

Powis Square

Want to be in the middle of the madness next August? There is a flat for rent on Powis Square through Home Site.

New tenant demand outpaced supply of rental property in the three months to July, says the latest RICS Residential Lettings Survey. Rents increased across all regions of the UK, but once again they rose at the fastest pace in the capital.

Surveyors report that where tenancies are coming up for renewal, some landlords – particularly those in London and the South East – are now choosing to put their properties on the sales market, leaving fewer rental properties available.

Download RICS Residential Lettings Survey July 2011

London market comments from the local property professionals:

Edward Reeve FRICS, Edward Reeve
Flats are letting very quickly and there are NO voids.

Jeremy Leaf FRICS, Jeremy Leaf & Co., North Finchley
Demand remains strong generally but we’re starting to notice a rent ceiling especially for 2 bedroom flats so prices are firm but steady. First-time buyers seem to be turning to the rental market due to concerns over mortgage lending criteria, job security and lack of wage growth. Instructions are starting to recover after the summer holiday lull though we’re expecting activity to increase in the autumn as usual.

John Collard MRICS, Robert Holmes & Co., Wimbledon Common
Budgets are tighter all round especially corporate budgets. There have never been so many large houses on the market in this busiest quarter and everyone is very short of stock at the 1-2 bed level.

Lynn Hilton, Cluttons, Chelsea
July and August to date has seen an increase in student applicants: as is usual at this time of year. We have seen an increase in private landlords serving notice to their tenants rather than renew or put flats back on the market. They are selling. At the start of the last quarter we did see an increase in apps with large budgets 2,500 – 7,000 per week. This was quite short lived.

Lynn Hilton, Cluttons, Clapham
Landlords nervous of the financing. Are opting to sell.

Mark Wilson MRICS, Globe Apartments, London
With the possibility of central London now being seen as safer than fringe locations as a result of the riots, we see no reason for rents not to keep creeping forward in a flight to safety. We expect a bear market reaction in those fringe areas.

Harrods Estates has reportedly rented out a penthouse in One Hyde Park for a whopping £55,000 a week! The tenant is said to be a Middle Eastern businessman.

Source: arabianbusiness.com