Blog

The problems with the housing market in the UK are well documented and often in the news. With the recession slowing down property sales and the highest rate of repossessions in the last 2 decades there have been numerous debates.

 

However, little is written about the decline in the rental market. Currently, across the majority of areas in the UK and especially in London and in the South East there is a great shortage of good quality rental accommodations. Agents are experiencing the worst short fall of homes in living memory with many concerned for their business.  There does not appear to be any significant reason leading to the lack of available properties other than the recession and the potential that landlords have had to sell homes rather than rent them. There are very few new properties coming onto the market and any of those that are get taken quickly.

 

This issue is concerning as previously during a home search an assignee to the UK could expect to have in excess of 15 properties to view which would match their home search requirements. The current shortfall means that there are fewer properties to view that closely match the assignee’s needs in a given area and, even by widening the search to other areas, there still may not be properties that match all of their criteria.  Many assignees are left disappointed by the experience and left to either rethink their options or request additional housing budgets from their employers.

 

Once a property has been found there may still be problems as it is very much a landlords’ market and they can pick and choose who they want as tenants. Most landlords will hold out for the full asking price so negotiations tend to be short. Our best advice for assignees is to ask for as little as possible to be changed to the property and offer as near to the asking price as they can. Also the longer the commitment the more likely the landlord is of agreeing the tenancy.

 

We are constantly reviewing the market and current situation. In discussions with our client’s assignees we provide a full briefing of the current market conditions and work to manage the assignees expectations in advance, working to allow the assignee to arrive for the home search fully briefed and aware of what the options are.