Introduction
In this article I will attempt to summarise all the different ways of renting flat in London, and the pros & cons of each method. I will follow up this article with further articles detailing how to use each of these methods. I will assume that the tenant seeks a typical London flat, studio, or bedsit, to be rented from a reputable landlord, & is seeking the best value for money for their requirements.
How to Search
The first thing about any search for anything (not just flats to rent) is to be clear about what you want. You are going to make your search incredibly difficult if you aren’t clear about your budget, & your requirements, so spend some time establishing what you want & what isn’t acceptable. Your budget will help you – Pimlico Flats only rent in Pimlico which is one of the more expensive areas in London, and consequently most of our tenants have a particular reason for renting with us – probably they work in Central London. Although Pimlico is one of the nicest & best value areas of central London, if you work in Shepherd’s Bush you will get better value for money in Chiswick, if you work in West Ham you will get better value for money in Leytonstone or Docklands.
Now that you’ve established what you are looking for it’s time to review where you are going to find it …….. Different types of property are marketed in different ways. If you want a cheap bedsit there is no point walking into Frank Knight Rutley – trust me. Another fact of life that you are going to have to face up to is that there isn’t enough property in central London to go around – it’s a seller’s market, & if you are going to get the best property for your money you need to understand this. For simplicity I am going to divide rental property into 3 types:
These are pretty broad terms that will help you with your search, & I define them as follows:
- Cheap means a Bedsit or Studio, or a privately rented flat on a Council Estate. You won’t find these sorts of properties through Letting Agents or Estate Agents simply because the rent isn’t high enough to support their commission. For these properties you have to look to Search Agents & Direct Media. 50% of Pimlico Flats’ stock falls into this category & typical values for Pimlico are £400 – £800 pcm.
- Value is the typical London Flat, self contained, modernised, in good condition. 50% of Pimlico Flats’ stock falls into this category, & typical values for Pimlico are £800 – £2000. You can find these properties in all the marketing channels.
- Luxury – if you have to ask the price you can’t afford it, & anyway it’s your PA reading this website & preparing an executive summary for you. These are Pimlico Flats’ neighbours, & jolly nice people they are too. They find their flats through upmarket estate agents.
Where to Search
So now that you know what you are looking for lets review your options on where to look:
Estate Agents & Letting Agents
You should definitely visit a local Agent & ask to view their Lettings list. If you are seriously searching through an Agent then read our article “Beware Men in Suits” & make sure that you work through 2 different agents. Make sure that your Agent is ARLA registered, but be aware that in the event of a dispute with your Landlord the Agent will be looking after the Landlord’s interests, & you may well be worse off than renting directly.
Search Agents
These companies charge tenants for introducing them to Landlords.
Under a 1953 Law this is illegal nevertheless it is common practice for cheap property. The reason it is popular is because the Property Search Portals will not accept submissions from individual Landlords, however large, and consequently the value Landlord’s only options are either to advertise through an agency who charges commission (adding 17% to the rental cost of the property) or through one who charges the tenant illegally. These agents are regularly criticised for advertising cheap properties that do not exist as bait to encourage tenants to pay for their services. We at Pimlico Flats do use these agencies as it is the only way that we can cost effectively advertise our properties on the internet., & in spite of the widespread criticism of their practices our own experience of them has been that they are reputable companies. Nevertheless prospective tenants should be aware that many of the Landlords renting through these agencies are not licensed, & do not follow rental law. Although the Agency may be reputable, the agency takes no responsibility for the practices of the landlord.
Direct Media
Personal contacts. Work Notice Board. Intranet.
This is without doubt the best way to get a bargain. The Landlord will be happier knowing where the tenant is coming from, & with some luck that will be reflected in the rent. Watch out for friends who are moving on, & see if their flat is becoming available. If it was previously let out through a Letting Agent or Estate Agent the Landlord will have been paying a fee of up to 17% & they may be prepared to deduct some or all of this from the rent if you take on a tenancy directly with them.
If you have access to an Intranet Pimlico Flats would be very interested in posting our vacancies in your company.
Newspapers
Are you sitting comfortably? Once upon a time ………..
- all London flats were advertised in the Evening Standard Classifieds.
- Then around 1990 someone invented Loot, which killed off The Evening Standard Classifieds because Loot was free for Landlords to advertise (people had to buy the paper so the Ads could be free – a radical idea at the time!).
- Then someone invented Gumtree, which killed off Loot.
So without beating about the bush – I wouldn’t bother with newspapers.
Websites
Searching for a flat on the internet is nowhere near as simple as it appears because it’s a whole host of circular links, but I am about to simplify it for you. Letting Agents & Estate Agents feed their stock into Portals who aggregate these feeds & present them to you as Searches. There are many of these search sites, but at the end of the day you are going round in circles! Whichever site you go to for search you are searching the same pool of feeds, which might sound good, except this pool only represents the properties offered by the large agencies, which are the worst value for money properties. Consequently you have to accept that when searching on any Classifieds or Property Portal you will only see the same properties as any other Classifieds or Property Portal & that these will be the more expensive properties available through agents.
There are a number of exceptions to this, & we will be publishing a review of the websites who publish adverts from independent landlords. The most well known of these are Gumtree & Craigslist, but unfortunately they are also widely targetted by scammers.
We will be publishing an article on how to use Search Engines to find your ideal flat. If you are unable to land a flat through Personal contacts, Work Notice Board, or Intranet, then the best way of finding your ideal home will be to locate a reputable private landlord. Their are plenty of them, but unfortunately you have to be clever about how you use search engines to find these bargains, as they appear well below the more expensively marketed flats. We will be following this article with a tutorial on honing your search techniques to find that perfect flat!
Conclusions
In order to find the flat that will be your ideal home:
- Nail Your Budget
- Nail your Location
- Identify the appropriate search strategy for your target home.
If you think that Pimlico Flats may be able to provide your dream home put this Blog on your RSS or make www.pimlico-flats.co.uk one of your favourites.
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