Where to look for a cottage to rent?

elljay

Unfortunately a cottage I was hoping to rent has fallen through so I am looking for another.  Rents seem to have absolutely shot up recently so I'm struggling.  I live on Rightmove and Openrent but the kind of place I'm looking for used to be advertised in the local paper or village shop noticeboard.  Now neither of these seem to be used so I just wondered if anyone knows of another source of rural rented property that I'm missing.  I used to live in a scruffy cottage in a super area where the landlord had never heard of electric checks (I sorted that myself) or epcs etc - I'm wishing I never moved away. I put in a kitchen, flooring etc etc there. Quite happy to do work, decorate etc to make a home for the next 5 years or so.

I've heard that people are giving up letting their properties as Air BnBs but I haven't seen much evidence of these appearing as long term rentals instead.  So can anyone advise where I might look?

Thanks

MyRealNameToo

Presumably you are looking for somewhere to live not just a holiday, just confused by the mention of AirBnB which are very much focused on the later.

Rightmove is the ubiquitous option, outside of that speak to local estate agents for the areas you are interested in but most of them are likely to be uploading to RightMove anyway

elljay

Apologies for not being clear, yes somewhere permanent.  The mention of Air BnB was because I'd heard of several people stopping using their properties as holiday lets because of the amount of work and competition so were thinking of moving to long term lets.  I was wondering more where individual landlords, farmers etc might advertise nowadays who traditionally wouldn't use Rightmove or agents but used to advertise on noticeboards etc.

poseidon1

elljay said:

Apologies for not being clear, yes somewhere permanent.  The mention of Air BnB was because I'd heard of several people stopping using their properties as holiday lets because of the amount of work and competition so were thinking of moving to long term lets.  I was wondering more where individual landlords, farmers etc might advertise nowadays who traditionally wouldn't use Rightmove or agents but used to advertise on noticeboards etc.

I suspect that generation of 'informal' landlords have slowly died off.

Their heirs no doubt resort to the internet.

Cairnpapple

I've seen some rentals listed on Facebook. It may be worth asking on local Facebook groups. 

Jude57

elljay said:

Unfortunately a cottage I was hoping to rent has fallen through so I am looking for another.  Rents seem to have absolutely shot up recently so I'm struggling.  I live on Rightmove and Openrent but the kind of place I'm looking for used to be advertised in the local paper or village shop noticeboard.  Now neither of these seem to be used so I just wondered if anyone knows of another source of rural rented property that I'm missing.  I used to live in a scruffy cottage in a super area where the landlord had never heard of electric checks (I sorted that myself) or epcs etc - I'm wishing I never moved away. I put in a kitchen, flooring etc etc there. Quite happy to do work, decorate etc to make a home for the next 5 years or so.

I've heard that people are giving up letting their properties as Air BnBs but I haven't seen much evidence of these appearing as long term rentals instead.  So can anyone advise where I might look?

Thanks

Assuming you're not the writer Liz Jones (spending money to install permanent fixtures in a rental property is her thing, then, unlike you, she complains endlessly about the money it cost) have you looked at any large, country estates or farms in the area? While most cottages on such estates and farms are reserved for agricultural or estate workers, as mechanisation has overtaken the need for human physical labour, some landowners have got change of use permission to rent to local people. Worth a look, anyway.

poseidon1

Cairnpapple said:

I've seen some rentals listed on Facebook. It may be worth asking on local Facebook groups. 

Although beware Facebook is a very fertile hunting ground for letting fraudsters -

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/jul/20/rental-fraud-facebook-gumtree-scam-landlord-deposits#:~:text=Hunting for somewhere to rent,Learn more.

Jude57

elljay said:

Apologies for not being clear, yes somewhere permanent.  The mention of Air BnB was because I'd heard of several people stopping using their properties as holiday lets because of the amount of work and competition so were thinking of moving to long term lets.  I was wondering more where individual landlords, farmers etc might advertise nowadays who traditionally wouldn't use Rightmove or agents but used to advertise on noticeboards etc.

Have you tried local, with high street offices, estate agents? If farmers etc are only seeking local people as tenants, it's worth cultivating a good relationship with local agents who might know of local small landlords with available properties.

sheramber

Contact  estate owners direct to enquire if they have any rentals avaikable.

That worked when I lived rurally. 

ButterCheese

sheramber said:

Contact  estate owners direct to enquire if they have any rentals avaikable.

That worked when I lived rurally. 

I'd second this idea.  My Dad was a rural landlord and always used the local agent to find tenants.  He was happy to manage it but wanted the finding and checking to be done by those more in the know

youth_leader

I'm in Northumberland and we have a local agent 'Hotspur Residential'.  They regularly advertise on the Facebook Marketplace page.