Posts with tag: London rental sector

The Top Ten Houseshare Hotspots in London

Published On: November 8, 2015 at 2:00 pm

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East London has come out as the capital’s houseshare hotspot, according to a new report.

The Top Ten Houseshare Hotspots in London

The Top Ten Houseshare Hotspots in London

Landlords seeking further investment and tenants searching for a room should look to the east, where around 45% of London’s rental supply is found.

Research from SpareRoom.co.uk found that E1 is the London postcode with the highest amount of rooms available to rent. This postcode stretches from Mile End to Aldgate, encompassing Shoreditch and Whitechapel, two zone 1 hotspots on the north-eastern edge of the City of London.

Between July and September, there were more than 10,000 advertisements for rooms in these areas listed on SpareRoom, with prices ranging from £455-£1,049 per month.

Rents are as varied in E14, which has the second highest supply of rental rooms. Including Canary Wharf and the Docklands, almost 9,000 rooms were listed in this postcode during the same period, costing from £425-£1,144 a month. Canary Wharf’s surrounding district is being regenerated into a residential hub, with thousands of new homes, shops and schools and a new high-speed Crossrail station, to open in 2018.

As less than five people are seeking each room available in these postcodes, the supply-demand ratio is also the lowest in these two parts of London.

Director of the flat and house share website, Matt Hutchinson, comments on the data: “Those struggling to find rooms to rent in flat and house shares would be mad not to consider east London. The east has been the most regenerated area in recent years, so there are lots of new build flats, rather than the low-rise Victorian housing you’ll find in other areas.

“Demand outstrips supply across London, so haggling on your rent is risky. But it’s certainly more of an option where supply is higher and demand is lower than elsewhere, such as E1. Good references from previous landlords will help, too.”1

The N1 postcode in north London, including Angel, Islington and Canonbury, has the most rooms available. Between July and September, 2,900 rooms were advertised, while the level of demand is also high, with up to nine people searching for each room. The average monthly rent is therefore comparatively high, at £845 per month.

In west London, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush have the highest supply of flatshare rooms available. At an average of £732 a month, Acton also has the least expensive rents of all the areas listed. It is a great place to invest, as redevelopment projects are improving the town centre.

The following areas have the least number of houseshares available. Could these be potential investment locations?

London postcodes with the lowest number of rooms to rent

Position

Postcode Area Number of rooms

Average rent price per month

1 EC4 St Paul’s 26 £1,192
2 SW13 Barnes 33 £719
3 SW14 Mortlake 39 £693
4 E20 Olympic Park 43 £806
5 SE21 Dulwich 46 £663
6 WC2 Strand/Holborn 50 £1,053
7 N18 Upper Edmonton 52 £576
8 EC2 Bishopsgate/Cheapside 60 £940
9 SE19 Crystal Palace 64 £585
10 SE27 West Norwood 72 £607

For tenants, the following places are the cheapest to rent in the capital.

The cheapest areas to rent in London

Position

Postcode Area

Average rent price per month

1 SE18 Plumstead/Woolwich £537
2 E12 Manor Park £537
3 E6 East Ham £542
4 SE7 Charlton £542
5 SE9 Eltham £550
6 SE2 Abbey Wood £550
7 E4 Chingford £559
8 SE12 Lewisham £559
9 SE20 Penge £559
10 E7 Forest Gate £563

And the most expensive spots in the capital are as follows:

The most expensive areas to rent in London

Position

Postcode Area

Average rent price per month

1 EC4 St Paul’s £1,192
2 SW7 South Kensington/Knightsbridge £1,153
3 WC2 Strand/Holborn £1,053
4 SW3 Chelsea £1,049
5 SW10 West Brompton/Chelsea £1,001
6 SW1 Westminster/Belgravia/Pimlico £1,001
7 W1 West End/Soho £997
8 W8 Holland Park £984
9 W2 Bayswater/Paddington £984
10 SW5 Earl’s Court/West Brompton £953

1 http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/rentals/renting-room-london-top-10-areas-find-house-share-and-wheres-best-haggle-price

How Hard is it to Rent in London?

Published On: October 10, 2015 at 4:18 pm

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Categories: Property News

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It is not an unknown fact that renting in London is ridiculously expensive. But new figures reveal just how pricey it really is.

Flatsharers – those living with strangers, as private rents are simply unmanageable – in the capital pay an average of £692.30 per month to rent a room, almost £100 more than tenants say they can actually afford, according to property website EasyRoommate.

Its data shows that these renters spend an extra £1,128 per year than they can afford, which they could be putting towards food and transport.

A room in London is £121 more a month than in Oxford, the second most expensive place to rent a room in Britain.

It is £244.80 more expensive than in Maidstone, which is 40 miles from central London, and the tenth most expensive place to rent a room.

In the last three years, prices have soared by 13.9% in London, with the average room costing £607.90 per month in 2012.

In the UK, affordable rent is defined as a cost that is no more than 35% of net household income.

The median gross annual wage for workers in inner London is £34,473, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), minus tax of around £8,000. With average prices of £692.30 per month, totalling £8,307.60 a year, London rents account for over 30% of the average salary.

Some tenants in the capital live in cramped conditions in order to bring their cost of living down.

The second most expensive place, Oxford, has experienced the greatest surge in room rents in the last three years, with prices up 29% to an average of £571.30 a month.

However, renters in the popular area can almost afford these payments, with flatsharers setting a budget of £568.30 per month for rent.

Tenants in High Wycombe, Maidstone, Milton Keynes and Edinburgh all say rents are affordable.

The growing cost of renting privately is ever controversial, particularly as house prices continue to rise and mortgage lending has tightened.

Data indicates that first time buyers must earn £77,000 a year to buy a home in London.

EasyRoommate’s Albin Serviant comments: “There is an increasingly competitive property market at play – from skyrocketing housing prices to the supply-demand imbalance. This is having a palpable impact on the rental sector and flatsharers.”1

1 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/11903957/The-hefty-price-of-living-in-the-capital-London-renters-forced-to-pay-much-more-than-they-can-afford.html

ARLA Insists Rent Controls Will Not Help Tenants

Rent controls will do nothing to help tenants, insists the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA).

ARLA Insists Rent Controls Will Not Help Tenants

ARLA Insists Rent Controls Will Not Help Tenants

ARLA made this claim in response to questions from the London Assembly Housing Committee, which asked: “Which rent stabilisation measures do you think operate effectively in other countries?” and “What more can the Mayor do to support the development of build-to-let and commercial landlords?”

ARLA replied by stating that it is not in favour of rent controls, as similar measures in other countries have often led to tenants being left with much higher expenses.

Managing Director of ARLA, David Cox, says: “Fundamentally, ARLA is not in favour of introducing rent stabilisation measures in London.

“In March, we surveyed our members and nearly three-quarters of them said that rent control, longer tenancies and less freedom to evict tenants will not benefit tenants in reality.

“We’ve looked at Germany, which is often viewed as one of the best examples of rent stabilisation in the world, but there are large costs involved for tenants, as most properties are let bare without a kitchen or bathroom.”

He continues: “In addition, in Belgium, they have longer minimum tenancies lasting between three and five years, which simply wouldn’t work in London where the fluidity of people coming and going for short periods is a common occurrence.

“The challenge in London remains to find new, imaginative and additional ways of delivering good homes in safe and friendly neighbourhoods for prices people can afford.

“We think that the Stamp Duty raised from London property sales should be kept in London to invest in more housing and we would like to see the London Rental Standard become mandatory across the private rented sector.”1 

1 http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/arla-says-rent-controls-could-lead-to-even-more-expense-for-tenants/