Musings of a London Property Finder

A glut of property offered for rental has pushed rents down according to the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the RICS.  This rather unsurprising news is as a result of numerous frustrated vendors opting to rent instead.  Our clients have benefitted from professional developers need to retain cash-flow this year particularly in Q3 and Q4, renting some fabulous homes intended purely for the sales market. 

In the RICS Lettings Survey published today, London and the South East have been the hardest hit: not a shock since a significant part of corporate relocations were down in Q4 and after 9 months on the market in some cases, vendors opted to become reluctant landlords to help with mortgage repayments.  We have seen an upswing in these properties, particularly since the middle to end of October, as hopes for a sale started to fade for many vendors.  We will therefore expect the situation to worsen in Q4 which is great news for tenants.

It should be said that sometimes rents are frankly ridiculous.  We are frequently offered property with a rent 2 or 3 times the real market value, but as with sales it is usually possible to get the landlord to see sense eventually and also to throw in lots of extras to clinch the deal. 

It is also true to say that fortune favours the brave and it is still possible to pick up buy-to-lets with a yield of over 10% if you buy the right property in the right location at the right price, even with pessimistic rental expectations.   If you don’t know how to do that, call this London property Finder on 020 7923 7564.

Technorati Tags: Buy-to-let, Lettings, London Lettings, London Property Finder, Rentals, RICS

Tags: Buy-to-let, Lettings, London Lettings, London Property Finder, Rentals, RICS