London is hurtling towards becoming a city of renters. Industry experts reveal their top tips on location and getting the best deals.
By 2025 Prince George will be at senior school, Crossrail will (presumably) have opened and the capital will officially be a city of renters, with tenants outnumbering owner-occupiers.
Renting is rapidly morphing from a short-term rite of passage into a permanent lifestyle for Londoners priced off the housing ladder.
So learning how to rent well is more important than ever, particularly in a climate of high competition and rising costs.
Rents are starting to inch upwards after two years of stagnation, by 1.36 per cent year on year according to new data from Landbay Rental Index.
John Goodall, chief executive and co-founder of Landbay, suspects the rise is a sign that recent increases in stamp duty and the end of tax relief on mortgage interest payments for landlords are starting to be passed on to tenants.
“As landlords begin to feel the pinch … the inevitable consequence is an upward pressure on prices,” he says.
In Canary Wharf, Tom Crowe, residential lettings manager at Harrisons Property, agrees rents are likely to start to rising.
“There was an enormous 51 per cent decline in available properties to rent [over the last year], signalling a shortage of supply in a market that is rife with growing tenant demand,” he says.
“It is our strong belief that there will be considerable upward pressure on rental prices.”
Renting well means not leaving things until the last minute, says Alex Sullivan, founder of Ems, a start-up which uses algorithms to find homes for tenants.
https://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/property-news/how-to-rent-a-flat-in-london-best-budget-neighbourhoods-to-securing-a-tenancy-a125836.html