Written By Em

Em

Em Morley

Room for Rent in Old Street at £1,083 Per Month

Published On: October 11, 2015 at 3:18 pm

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Categories: Property News

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This property may be marketed as a studio flat, but really, it is no more than a single bed in a kitchen. It has recently been let for £1,083 per month.

The advertisement for the home on EasyRoommate.co.uk described it as brilliantly furnished, despite having just a desk and wardrobe squeezed in between the sink and bed.

The positive is that the flat is located on Old Street within a three-minute walk of Farringdon Station, one of the new Crossrail hotspots. The building also has an on-site gym.

As flatsharing rents have risen by around 15% in the past three years and six people fight for each double bedroom, young Londoners are increasingly being pushed out of central London or must make huge sacrifices in their housing options.

Recently, we discovered this Harry Potter style cupboard under the stairs being advertised in Clapham for £500 a month: /harry-potter-style-cupboard-under-the-stairs-to-rent-for-500-a-month/

 

How Hard is it to Rent in London?

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

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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

Landlord News Competition

Published On: October 9, 2015 at 4:51 pm

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There are just two days to go for landlords to enter our competition to win £100 of John Lewis vouchers.

With the festive season just 11 weeks away (yes, really), speculation is already rife about who and what will feature in this year’s John Lewis advert. Who will follow in the footsteps of Lily Allen and Tom Odell? What song will get a seasonal reworking? Which animal will follow the penguin as the number one must have gift? Just imagine how many penguins you could buy with £100!

To have a chance of winning, simply register on our site and follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. Existing members will automatically be entered into the draw.

 

landlord news comp

A big thank you to everyone that has already registered with us here at Landlord News. A special mention to all of our new members sourced from the Landlord Investment Show in Manchester. We enjoyed meeting you and are grateful for your interest.

A quick reminder to members new and old that you can interact with us through commenting on our articles. We would love to hear your views on a particular subject matter that is of interest to you or your business.

Keep your eyes out for a monthly newsletter dropping into your inbox in the very near future. In the meantime, we hope that you continue to enjoy and find our articles useful

Thank you and Good Luck!

 

 

 

Most London Landlords Would Sell if a Rent Freeze was Introduced

Published On: October 9, 2015 at 4:03 pm

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The majority of landlords in London (60%) would sell one or more of their properties if a rent freeze was introduced, according to a new report.

The research was commissioned by the London Assembly Housing Committee and conducted by the Cambridge Centre for Housing & Planning Research (CCHPR).

The CCHPR surveyed around 200 landlords, most of whom do not own many properties, and commercial built-to-rent investors.

Most London Landlords Would Sell if a Rent Freeze was Introduced

Most London Landlords Would Sell if a Rent Freeze was Introduced

CCHPR presented the landlords with six potential scenarios of rent stabilisation, for example, a one-off rent freeze for three years or linking rent rises to wage increases.

The study revealed that the majority of landlords would continue as they are doing if rents could only be increased in line with inflation, however, 40% stated that they would sell some or all of their properties if this was introduced.

Additionally, most landlords said they were not keen to offer longer tenancies, but 52% would be more inclined to do so if tax incentives were available.

Chair of the London Assembly Housing Committee, Tom Copley, addresses the sector: “Much has been said from all sides about rent controls, but the debate has been sorely lacking in facts, so it’s incredibly useful to have these set out in this report.

“The choice is not simply between regulating rents and not regulating rents. There is no one size fits all system of rent control, with many cities around the world adopting different models. Each system has upsides and downsides. Our report seeks to find out what could work in London.”

He adds: “We need solutions that work for the millions of Londoners – especially families – in the rental sector. For families, the prospect of having to up sticks with very little notice often means disruption to many aspects of their lives, including schooling and employment.”1

David Smith, the Policy Director for the Residential Landlords Association (RLA), insists that the country will need more homes to rent if it is to solve the housing crisis.

He says: “This report reminds us of the dangers of rent controls, which would in fact reduce supply, thereby increasing rents. Rent controls would also severely reduce standards in rental housing as investment dries up.

“It would take us back to the bad old days of Rachman landlords, which we must prevent for the good of tenants.”1

The report was discussed yesterday (8th October 2015) by various parties, including Alan Benson, the Senior Manager of Housing Strategy at the Greater London Authority, John Bibby, the Policy Officer at Shelter, and Anna Clarke, one of the authors of the report and Senior Research Associate at CCHPR.

1 https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2015/10/london-landlords-to-sell-up-in-the-event-of-a-rent-freeze

Rightmove and Zoopla to Switch to Instant Property Uploads

Published On: October 9, 2015 at 2:01 pm

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Rightmove has revealed that all of its agents will be instantly uploading their properties within months.

Zoopla has also announced that it expects its property feeds to switch to real-time uploads.

However, while Rightmove will impose the change onto its agents, Zoopla says that a natural switch is already happening.

Rightmove and Zoopla to Switch to Instant Property Uploads

Rightmove and Zoopla to Switch to Instant Property Uploads

It is expected that almost all agents on Rightmove will start uploading instantly in the new year, but by next summer, all overnight uploads will be non-existent.

The switch is scheduled for 6th January 2016 for Rightmove agents, with a six-month grace period until June.

The change could affect agents who also use OnTheMarket, which launches properties exclusively on that portal for the first 48 hours.

It could also have a negative impact on agents that like to time the release of properties.

One agent is concerned that the first applicants learn about a property is not from the agent, but from Rightmove. He feels that this changes who finds the buyer.

However, Rightmove insists that instant uploading is becoming the industry standard and many agents already use this system.

A spokesperson for the property portal says: “More and more Rightmove agents are seeing the benefits of near instant updates to their listings using Rightmove’s Real Time Data Feed [RTDF], and it is fast becoming the industry standard for property uploading.

“We want all of our customers to see the benefits of RTDF, and as such it has been made available for free to all software suppliers since the summer of 2013, and the spec has been offered to other portals.

“We have been working closely with data feed providers to ensure a smooth transition of our mutual customers ready for January 6th.

“As more of our agents are now using RTDF, we will begin to withdraw support for the outdated version of the Automated Data Feed (ADF, also called Version 3/3a) as of January 6th.

“Agents will still be able to use the older ADF format for a further six months after January 6th.”

Rightmove states that there are several options “to help agents compete on a level playing field with those who can almost instantly update their property listings”1.

These are:

  • Contact their feed provider and ask to be switched over to the RTDF.
  • Use Rightmove Admin – available as part of the standard membership – to upload properties manually.
  • Choose an alternative software supplier that can provide them with RTDFs.

Rightmove says that agents can contact their software provider directly to enquire about the transition to RTDF.

It adds that the Rightmove Data Feed Team will be happy to deal directly with the software provider to manage the change.

The spokesperson explains: “We have let all software providers know that we are able to offer support, advice and testing of feeds to make the transition to RTDF as smooth as possible.”1

A spokesperson for Zoopla says: “Agents have expressed a clear desire to create and update listings as quickly as possible and feed providers are moving apace to support real-time behaviour. We ourselves are seeing a strong shift from the use of bulk overnight feeds to using our Real-Time Listings Service.

“We have no immediate plans to cease supporting bulk fees because this is happening naturally already.”1

1 http://www.propertyindustryeye.com/rightmove-confirms-switch-to-instant-time-uploading-of-all-properties/

 

eMoov Raises Record £2.6m Through Crowdfunding

Published On: October 9, 2015 at 1:03 pm

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eMoov Raises Record £2.6m Through Crowdfunding

eMoov Raises Record £2.6m Through Crowdfunding

Online estate agent eMoov has raised a record amount through its crowdfunding pitch, which closed last night.

The bid ended with a huge £2,615,530 from 795 investors. The largest single investment was £575,000. With minutes to go before the deadline, investors were still adding to the funds.

The amount raised was much higher than the initial £1m target, taking eMoov’s fundraising much further than other online agents.

Last year, easyProperty raised £1.35m through crowdfunding.

The original crowdfunding pitch valued eMoov at £20m.

Although higher amounts have been raised via crowdfunding, eMoov has easily beaten other estate agents and property-related businesses, setting a UK and Europe-wide record.