Renting in London

Alleycat

Hi,

I know this board is for house buying, but I thought I would get some good advice from here anyway!

I am looking to relocate down to London in the next 18 months and will be looking to rent a two bedroom property, ideally in West or South West London. I have been having a good look on various rental websites and there seem to be a reasonable amount of suitable properties with rents that would be affordable, though there are plenty more with rents far exceeding even our potential good salaries.

My question if anyone has even the remotest idea, is what does the long term rental market look like doing over the next couple of years? Overall, the rents being asked are extremely high even for London and with the dramatic increase over the past few years of buy-to-letters is there really the rental market there to keep up? Is there any room for negotiation with agents/landlords if a potential tenant has excellent references, several months rent up front rather than just the one month and 4-6 week deposit?

Also, a lot of the properties are furnished, but this would not be necessary for us. Although we are living in rented now, we have all our own stuff bar a cooker. Does anyone know if there is any negotiation with regards to getting a furnished property as unfurnished, or is it really very difficult to find unfurnished properties?

Thanks in advance,

Alley

ahorrando

Hi,
Regarding your questions, I think there will be a market for rented accomodation in the next few years, this is partly because of: new EU countries and migration to the UK, younger people starting to live alone; people living longer requiring a place to live; normal immigration to the UK tends to affect london....so you will have a lot of people arriving to live in london in the next few years, then supporting the market.

Is there any room for negotiation with agents/landlords if a potential tenant has excellent references, several months rent up front rather than just the one month and 4-6 week deposit? It all depens on the part of the city you choose to live and the conditions of the landlord. If he/she is desperate for money and someone offers upfront and a long contract, he may accept....however not everyone is desperate for money and not all areas of the city have declining rental costs....so yes and no.

Does anyone know if there is any negotiation with regards to getting a furnished property as unfurnished, or is it really very difficult to find unfurnished properties? you will find both, fur/un fur....also partially furn....it doesn't really change things much, landlords will tend to prefer to leave the property as it is....they don't have where to put all the stuff so if you want them to take things away they may not accept the deal..

sanfrancisco

I live in SW London and have been renting here for the last 7 months. I monitor rents closly in Kingston, Wimbledon, Wandsworth, Over the last 6 months rents have fallen massively (10 %) and there is currently a lot of choice. We negotiated 10% off of our rent. You should definitely start negotiation at 10%. The key is how long the place has been on the market. Monitor closely. You do not have to have 6-12 months rent in advance, but a good credit record will help.

You will be able to bargain even harder if you move to not so nice area. Where will you be working??

In my opinion rents will be falling even further in short-medium term as there are so many BTL Landlords out there, desperate to let. Just my opinion mind.

If you have any questions, just ask! Happy to help if I can.

LeanneF

In terms of getting a good deal one of the best things you can try to do is move in December. This is a slow month & if a flat is empty in December it's likely to be empty in January too. Thus a landlord can miss out on 2 months rent at the most expensive time of year. Back in 2002, I rented a 2-bed in Putney. We looked at loads of places but none were suitable. Nearly every landlord called back with offers to reduce the rent. So I called one which was out of our price range, close to £300 a week if I remember correctly. It was fantastic & we got it for £207 a week (£900 a month) in early December. It was overpriced to begin with but it had already been empty for a month. Also, in our last flat the letting agency stitched us up with a clause in the contract with meant we could not give notice between November & March. They admitted this was to prevent the flat being empty over Christmas.
Leanne

michaels

6 weeks deposit is the norm these days

Alleycat

Hi, thanks for all the replies! It has certainly made me a feel a lot more optimistic re our move.

We will at first be living with my parents in Hammersmith whilst I work 6 months full-time. My OH will get some well earned time off and the opportunity to do some further IT training that we can't currently afford. I should be earning in the region of £28,000 p.a., so with rent to my parents, food etc, that should allow him to do some training, finish paying off debts and build a reasonable amount of savings to use as deposit, rent etc. Once we hae done this, OH will start working full-time again (he should be able to get around £28,000), I will then look to reduce my hours to part-time. The type of work I currently do (Homelessness Officer) tends to be mainly temp work, though the agencies I have contacted say that there is quite a lot of scope for temp to permanent work available as well, so I would potentially be working right across London (though would concentrate on South West, West, and North West London). I would love to be in Hammersmith or Shepherds Bush as that is where I grew up, but the rents being asked there are just far too high. I remember when Shepherds Bush used to be a right dumping ground, but now it seems all the posh people have moved in, pushing prices in both the rental and buying market way out of reach of those born and bred in those areas. Can you tell it makes me cross?! I think we will be able to comfortably manage up to £230 per week rent, possibly more depending on whether or not I can get a reasonable part-time post that is guaranteed.

Thank you Sanfrancisco, for your advice re negotiation. I had hoped and thought it would be possible, but it is really nice to know from personal experience that it is a reality! All three areas you have mentioned would be great for us. My dad works in Kingston and I used to hang out in Wandsworth when I was a teenager. My friend used to work in Wimbledon as well. Good transport links to my folks and into Central London also.


LeanneF, your info re best times to look for rented is absolutely fantastic! It really is good to have an insight into these things. Thinking about dates, that would probably be around the time we would be looking to move out of my parents as well. Say we move from Bradford in June 2007 (how I wish it was 2006!), 6 months with parents, that would make it December. It would be really nice to have somewhere in time for christmas.

Does anyone know what nursery fees are like round these areas at the moment? I have been looking a bit, but so many places don't publish the costs on their sites. Our dd is 13 months at the moment, so would be around 2.5 yrs when we move. We currently pay £250 per month for two half days and one full day up here, though I am aware that it is quite a bit more expensive in London.

Thanks again for all your help, I feel so happy now that I have got all this positive advice! If anyone else has any other info, I would really appreciate it all.

Sorry, just one last thing. Sanfrancisco, will you be continuing to monitor rents? If so, would I be able to keep in contact with you to pick your brains?

Alley

sanfrancisco

Re: Nursery fees. I have NO IDEA??? Post on the marriage and family board. I htink you are right - might be expensive.

Yes - of course keep in contact. I will be montoring rents until house prices have crashed and we can buy again (probably not for 2-3 years). For 230 per week, you could rent a really nice 2 bed house in Kingston (central) and victorian. Wimbledon would be 1200 for the same type house and wandsworth up again. Kingston (I think) will come down more because there are SO MANY new build btl properties.

balsingh

Without going into too much detail, when I was renting, I found that houses nearer to stations demanded higher rent and also rented much quicker. The further you are prepared to be from a station, the cheaper and theres usually more choice too.

Also, the further you are from central london, the cheaper it is. I live near a zone 5 station which is also a BR station. You can get a fast train to London in 20mins ... yet the rent is at least 30% less than if I was in Zone 1 or 2.

Joannaclaire

I second what Balsingh suggests.

We live in Zone 6 in South London, 20 mins by fast train into victoria or London Bridge. It has more of a community feel to it and more outdoor spaces - parks etc than central London and you actually know who your neighbours are (whereas when we lived in central London it wasn't the done thing to talk to one's neighbours ever). We pay 750 a month for a 2 bed garden flat in a nice street that's 6 mins walk from the train station. A similar, or smaller/not as nice property in Battersea/Clapham when we were looking 2 years back was easily around 1000-1200 a month. Also parking is not so much of an issue in our area and all the big supermarkets etc are within driving distance and have parking, whereas in central London getting from A to B by car (necessary with a small child I would have thought?) is a lot more difficult and time-consuming.

Also further out of London, there are more flats/houses that are unfurnished as generally they're rented by families who have their own furniture etc, wheras central London caters more for young singles, people from overseas etc who don't have their own furniture.

We found https://www.findaproperty.co.uk to be good for rentals.

Alleycat

Hi all,

Thanks for the further advice/suggestions. Initially we were just looking in West London, Acton, Ealing, Hounslow etc, but recently I have been delving more into the South where rents seem to be a lot more reasonable. I would ideally not want to be too far south as my sister lives in NW6, so travel would be a lot harder. Still easier than the 200 odd miles that currently seperate us though! Dulwich is definately out of the question as a very dodgy ex lives there who I would rather avoid if at all possible! Where is zone 6 do you live Joanna?

We need to be relatively close to public transport as I can't drive and initially we won't have a car. Our current one is a company car. My mum and dad managed okay for years without a car and there were three of us kids to contend with. Not ideal I know, but doable. I want to get a bike as I used to cycle a lot when I lived in London, though its far too hilly here in Bradford.

I am soo excited now! I want to move NOW!!!

lonelyinlondon

Not sure about Shepherds' bush Alley Cat, my sister lived there a year or 2 ago (near Goldhawk Road) and felt very unsafe indeed!! Be careful .