To think that there is a shortage of lodgers in London?

[GoodWeatherforDucks]

I’ve been advertising a double room on SpareRoom for just over a week and have had very few responses this time compared to previous occasions when I’ve needed to find a lodger. This time, about 8 responses and nobody has even made it to come and take a look, whereas 2 years ago and 1 year before that, I had about 20 responses each time and did about 4 interviews each time. Nothing has changed about the property, not even the price. I’m even advertising at the same time of year. I wonder if this has to do with the exodus of around 800,000 (?) people from London over the previous 18 months due to the pandemic and Brexit? Has anyone else been experiencing this?

What area is it in and what budget out of interest, may know someone looking!

That can't be a surprise. Surely most people looking for lodgings in London are people from outside the area who need to be there for work. Whilst there will still be lots of people in that situation, we know very many people don't need to be in the office atm.

I'd imagine covid has a certain amount to do with it. I can imagine people would be reluctant to be sharing a home with someone else in a lodger/house share situation unless they absolutely have to. Also anyone already a lodger who would, in normal times, be looking for a change would probably rather stay put with someone they know than move in with someone who's habits/attitude to covid is unknown - whichever end of the spectrum they're on. Add to that we're in a lockdown, people cant have mates to help move etc. It'll probably pick up in summer when group10 have had their 1st vaccines and things relax.

Try lowering your price and see if that changes anything.

I'm a professional London landlord specialising in shared houses. The market crashed in February last year and hasn't recovered. Enquiries are down by around 90 per cent on this time in 2018 say, and the people who are enquiring are the ones I wouldn't ever consider renting to.

Since February last year I have had rooms empty for months on end. Before that it would be no more than a couple of days. Of course it's not a surprise - the rooms market depends on lots of foreigners coming to work in bars/do internships/students. They are no longer coming and those that were here have gone back to wherever they came from. My income is down by nearly 50 per cent.

I am now in the process of changing at least some of my houses from room lets to whole house lets, partly because I'm not sure the market will ever fully recover (because of wfh) and partly because the imminent removal of the Section 21 eviction process means that I don't see how I will be able to carry on with houseshares as I will be unable to evict anyone that annoys all the other tenants.

Not that that will be a factor for you OP as lodgers have no rights anyway.

@VenusClapTrap

Try lowering your price and see if that changes anything.

I've discovered it doesn't. It does attract a few more of the people I wouldn't consider letting to in a month of Sundays, but it doesn't bring in any more normal 'nice' people.

Thanks for your responses. Especially yours, @thecatneuterer which shows that it is timing-wise, possibly more related to it being a pandemic than by the effects of Brexit.

@curiouscat1987 to satisfy your curiousity, it’s a large sunny furnished room in a garden flat with off-street parking, all in for £600 pcm. It’s very near Norbury station, but is on a quiet street. It’s in Zone 3, with direct connections to Victoria and London Bridge, so of course people who are currently WFH have no need to take advantage of this.

Everyone can wfh now, of course demand for rooms will have plummeted. And that's before accounting for all the young graduates who havent been able to get jobs who are stuck at home with parents.

To be honest, I'm surprised that you're surprised. Of course with nearly a million people leaving London as they are able to work from home which allows you to live in much cheaper areas of the country, there is going to be more rooms in London than demand for them.

My daughter left London at the start of the pandemic and is now looking to buy a three bedroom house for less than she was paying in rent for a room in a shared house.

I've found similar things with my spare room in Not London. It has been like pulling teeth, to be honest.

It's not helped by the fact that I'm on the edge of the city centre, and paying a premium for renting in such a central location (I rent the whole flat & have a lodger in the spare room). There's now a dearth of people willing to pay the same premium to live in a central location - it's not useful for either cutting the commute, or avoiding a taxi fare when you've fallen out of a nightclub at 3am.

The position post 21 June (or whenever date the work from home guidance ends after that) may make a difference. I live in north London and there are two flats near me that have been without tenants for several months. The rent being asked for has actually been reduced compared with when the tenants next door moved in three years ago.

£600 a month is a lot for a room in Norbury! A quick search shows Tooting & Streatham prices are similar now. Both better places to live (access to green spaces, things to do once open, much lower crime rates).

£600 a month is a lot for a room in Norbury!

This.

It wouldn't have been out of place a couple of years ago, but now you can get a better deal in zone 2.

Hello OP a year ago I was paying £720 for a lovely room in flat share right near Vauxhall tube station and had found rooms around your price in more central areas closer in so there’s no way I’d pay £600 in norbury. Sorry that’s probably not helpful but it’s greats rents are coming down.

£600 for a room in Norbury?!

Why would any person pay that, crazy!

I hope wfh gives people so many more options. I say that as a homeowner in Clapham but I have a mortgaged house for much better value than £600 a room.

I think you are lucky anyone ever paid that tbh.

Yes it’s totally crashed. One of my mums two rooms that she rents has been empty since Feb. The min is now £500pm and that can now get you a nice room on zone 1 all bikes inc. nice shared space and no live in landlord

I find that interesting. My daughter needed a room for her nanny job (so as not to commute from Surrey to north London). Everything she was looking at got snapped up right away. The room she finally got she had to agree to take it (and pay her deposit) based on a video tour. This was in Marylebone this past summer. She left in February but paid through March. Multiple People were viewing it in February and new tenant moving in end of March.

DD changed jobs and now moving into shared house with friends in south London. Houses were being let before they could get in to view.

Perhaps it’s your area?

Marylebone is a world apart from Norbury though in terms of demand. House shares are more in demand than lodging rooms too as so many HMO landlords have exited the market due to stricter (much welcome) regulations & you have more rights as that sort of tenant. I'm not a Norbury basher by the way, but know that area of London in & out & the price is just too high in this climate.

Not surprising. Some lodging agreements I've seen are ridiculous, too. One I saw said person must be teetotal and other ridiculous instructions.

@willibald

Not surprising. Some lodging agreements I've seen are ridiculous, too. One I saw said person must be teetotal and other ridiculous instructions.

Best to be upfront if you're looking for household harmony, I think. My advert says you must like dogs - because there's a dog living here.

You'd think that would be really fucking obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people came around to view the place, and blatantly didn't like dogs. At a minimum I expect them to say hello to the dog on a viewing, and preferably throw the ball that the dog is dropping at their feet!

I don’t think being a lodger has ever been a top choice in London, the few I know who have done this have not ended well. I would definitely not consider it during a pandemic and working from home, because if you don’t get on you are TRAPPED. You can get good offer on central studios at the moment so £600 to lodge in Norbury is really not an attractive offer at the moment.

Sorry! Who are your typical demographic? I can see multiple specific reasons why students/commuters/furloughed/etc groups would be put off at the moment

@Onjnmoeiejducwoapy

I don’t think being a lodger has ever been a top choice in London, the few I know who have done this have not ended well. I would definitely not consider it during a pandemic and working from home, because if you don’t get on you are TRAPPED. You can get good offer on central studios at the moment so £600 to lodge in Norbury is really not an attractive offer at the moment.

Sorry! Who are your typical demographic? I can see multiple specific reasons why students/commuters/furloughed/etc groups would be put off at the moment

When DH was lodging in London it got to be where it was cheaper to stay in some budget hotels as it was only 4 days/week and then he had his own bathroom and room all to himself.

I don’t think being a lodger has ever been a top choice in London, the few I know who have done this have not ended well.

Yeah, this too. Being a lodger rather than a tenant is generally cheaper because it's less desirable, unless you're pitching at the people who can't pass reference checks to get on a tenancy via an agency, who don't have much choice.

I have a friend in Ilford who rents out houses but they have downscaled a lot recently, mainly because of coronavirus, a lot of casual jobs have gone at the moment in retail, bar and resteraunt work and taxi drivers etc.
Many renters from the houses I know went home to Portuagal/India etc. to stay with family until it is all over.