London rents drop by 10%

K.Tarshes

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Starting to see the impact of housing benefit cuts perhaps.

Most are still in areas since the cuts in April. They still have not been evicted. So the cuts have not YET begun to bite!

IronWolf

chucknorris wrote: »

I just looked at our rents a few days ago and came to the conclusion that I have fallen a bit behind the market again and should increase my rents again soon:

SW11 Battersea:
2 bed flats with garden rented at £1,200/month and £1,220/month
3 bed flat with communal garden £1,711/month
3 bed flat with balcony £1,395/month

N17 Tottenham Hale:
3 bed house with garden £1,150/month

That's cheap. Are they in the middle of a crack den?

K.Tarshes

Those rents do not look cheap to me.

But the question should be, will the trend continue to fall from now on?

chucknorris

IronWolf wrote: »

That's cheap. Are they in the middle of a crack den?

Certainly not! I lived in 3 of them myself over a period of 12 years. It is possible that I would still be living in one of them now if I had not got fed up with living in London.

EDIT: Although I much prefer living in a house now so maybe not, after experiencing the privacy that a detached house offers it would be hard to go back to living in a flat, and I know for certain that my wife wouldn't, also there would be the problem of my dog barking at noises he heard from other flats.

chucknorris

K.Tarshes wrote: »

Those rents do not look cheap to me.

But the question should be, will the trend continue to fall from now on?

They are on the cheap side, they probably do not look cheap to you because you are not familiar with the Battersea rental market. I tend to let my properties at about 10% under the market rent (although as I was saying above I think it is time to once again raise them). Letting at slightly below the market rent means that I have a wider choice of tenants and they usually stay longer and I don't get rental voids.

IronWolf

chucknorris wrote: »

They are on the cheap side, they probably do not look cheap to you because you are not familiar with the Battersea rental market. I tend to let my properties at about 10% under the market rent (although as I was saying above I think it is time to once again raise them). Letting at slightly below the market rent means that I have a wider choice of tenants and they usually stay longer and I don't get rental voids.

Are any of your flats becoming available in October?

chucknorris

IronWolf wrote: »

Are any of your flats becoming available in October?

I don't think so, as I said my tenants tend to stay quite a while, renting slightly under the market offers just not them advantages but also me:

1. I would pay 40% tax on the extra rents anyway, so (setting aside the 10% wear and tear allowance) I would only see 60% of the additional rent anyway.

2. Change of tenancies usually brings with it extra time and effort.

3. Building up a long term relationship with the tenants tends to make life easier on both sides. I would rather have a better quality of life than screw every last penny out of the properties.

4. Good choice of tenants when the existing tenants does vacate. Quite often what happens is that one or two unsuccessful potential tenants bid more, but I am happy with the rents I ask for and want to choose the perceived better tenants.

K.Tarshes

Its all about what people can afford. If the amount they can afford is going down 10% then rents will eventually go down 10% as they move away freeing up supply and less demand, nothing can stop the laws of supply and demand.

N1AK

Generali wrote: »

Possibly this is a side-effect of the FFL scheme: people can buy so the demand for rent is falling.

There's a bit of me that doubts this. FFL is increasing buying but not by enough to cover this kind of fall, additionally it only takes out one renter, without taking out a property as well, if a renter buys a new build that wouldn't otherwise have been bought and turned into a rental property.

K.Tarshes

Pretesh wrote: »

Its all about what people can afford. If the amount they can afford is going down 10% then rents will eventually go down 10% as they move away freeing up supply and less demand, nothing can stop the laws of supply and demand.

London is becoming more and more full of immigrants. They very rarely have much money. They are usually on low income and rents are already too high in relation to what the majority can afford. Something has got to give.