How's the rental market in London?

[luckywinner]

There is a distinct possibility my DH will be made redundant in the next couple of weeks and I am making a worse case scenario plan. If the worst came to it, we would rent out our 3 bed flat in a nice area of west london. I just wondered though, is the rental market flooded at the mo with people in a similar situation to us (don't want to sell for bad price, will try and get buy with renting it out). We would move in with his parents if we were to move out, but that really is worse worse case scenario!

It seems that rental prices are certainly dropping a bit. Perhaps contact several local estate agents now and get them to take a look and then that way you are armed with all the facts in the event that you decide to go down this road. Fingers crossed all is ok for your dh though, what difficult times these are.

It is glutted in a lot of areas (especially those which had a high percentage of City workers). From what I have been told, the houses have to be in pretty good nick to get decent tenants and there is a lot of negotiation on rent and terms.

Not wanting to depress you - but friend living in France rents out her Notting Hill flat (2 beds - tres swish) and has had to slash a third off the rent Think it's come down quite a lot as West London became very popular with renters.

I noticed that the rent I was charging on a one bed flat in nice part of South London has dropped by about £200 pcm - since Jan 06, when I then sold.

Fingers crossed for you that it doesn't come to that. I've been made redundant 7 times in 15 years - and it's no fun at all

lucky, we are thinking about doing exactly the same thing as our house sale has fallen through. I was going to speak to some agents this week but, looking at the property websites, there seem far more properties to rent than to buy at the moment so I don't know!

I am keeping all my fingers and toes crossed that things continue to be ok but I am not holding out much hope. I can't decide which would be better, to rent it out at a lower rate or sell it at a shit price what a choice. We have a bit of equity in it but we have built that up over 10 years. At least at the mo its not negative equity but it is a shame to have to sell at such a bad time.

Crashing. My DH's boss had his flat in Paddington valued at 2000 a week a few months ago. Now they are saying 950 a week. Still a lot of money but a big drop!

We saw some agents yesterday about the possibility of renting our house in Teddington. They all seemed to indicate that there are tenants about still but that rents have fallen somewhat in recent months. They said they would definitely be able to find us a tenant as long as we were prepared to offer it at a realistic rent. Why don't you get an agent round for a chat, so that you know, just in case.

We had 3 round and they were all desperate to come and see us.

Oh no mrs m, we are not far from Paddington. We did have it valued at 525 a week about 4 months ago so I am trying really hard not to go on that price. I think we will have to get the estate agents round again. We have to factor in service charge into our budget too which sucks.

Very expensive still.

I'm in north London and you can expect to pay £1000 and more per month for a decent good sized 2 bedroom garden flat (plus 2 months deposit)

Sorry Lucky. But his is a big swanky one in a mansion block, very close to the station, rather posh. I agree get another agent round. Perhaps the market in your particular area is slightly different. Hope your DH does not get made redundant. Tough times, eh?

Oh sorry I've got hold of the wrong end of the stick.

It sounds just like ours! We are in a mansion block right next to the tube. Although I am not sure it qualifies for posh. tis opposite a park though. Which tube station? I would love 950 a week. I can but dream.

Frazzled, its good to hear that about keen estate agents. I think its worse when they start the conversation with a sneer.

nevermind mercy, you made me feel better for a bit!

I'm not sure how to react to that tbh

I knew when I typed it it might come across a bit misconstrued. I suppose what I mean is, we have a mortgage on our flat, which if we had to, we would try to rent it out. It would be in our interest for prices to not have bottomed as then we would be in a difficult financial situation. Sorry if I offended. I know from renting in the past it is so frustrating to have pay such high rents. I am just looking at it from a financial, cover all our costs point of view. Sorry if I offended you.

My SIL lets a 2 bed GORGEOUS flat in Barnes in a mansion block for £1600 a month. It took them 2 months to find someone to rent it though and they had to lower the price. They had to 'do it up' to get genuine interest. Hope that helps.