London Rents

But you have to realise that a) some of those articles are written by estate agents so while I'm not saying they are lying, they will exaggerate rental price 'drops' in order to draw in business! b) none of those drops are substantial.  In late 2008, you could haggle down your rent maybe £20-50/month (on average) from the original asking price, but that's not really 'rents falling' and is extremely subjective and dependent on the demand in the area.  You can always still haggle at any time any year, but it's a matter of what landlords are willing to accept in the market.  Hubby says most places are going for their asking price in his area, though not up to 2007 levels of people actually having to bid OVER the asking price to secure a place!

Sorry, I hope this makes sense.  The rental market in London is so strong (and always will be) that any shift will be negligible.

I think it just depends. My sister just recently got a great deal on a place in Wandsworth. It's a lovely top floor one-bed flat, and the price had apparently recently come down £120/month from what the landlord originally wanted. They pay £880 for it, and since council taxes in Wandsworth are the lowest in the UK, they really got a great deal.

I live in Wimbledon and prices have definitely dropped.  No two ways about it.

My experience is that one bedroom flats seem to be staying roughly the same, but bigger properties are dropping. I think this is as more people who bought with the intention of living in their houses are having to rent them out to pay the mortgage, where one beds are often owned by those who are buy-to-let landlords as a profession.

Vicky

Good avice from Jen there.
 
nystacey, you seem really excited (which is great!) but a bit all over the place at the moment. Maybe it's worth taking a deep breath and chilling for a  day or so? I know that can be really hard, but sometimes it's worth just taking a step back endlessley looking at gumtree and rightmove can make everything just all swim together, or at least  it does for me!

What I would do if I were you, is take a break! Then sit down and make a list of the top things that you want in a place to live, in vague priority order, so mine go like this :

Less than £230 per week rent
Less than 20 minutes commute to Paddington station.
Less than 30 minutes commute to Victoria/East Croydon/Clapham Junction/London Bridge
Less than 30 minute commute to oxford circus (I go shopping/meet friends a lot!)
Close proximity to some local shops (corner shop, pub, garage, market etc)

Double room
Good storage
Nice flatmates
En-suite
Outside space

So assume you work in canary wharf, work out your maximum budget and then what's important to you.
Do you want street markets and busy weekends, character homes, modern flats, river views etc?

Write your list out, then use tfl journey planner to what areas fit into your ideal commute, then use
www.londontown.com to work out what those areas are like, and if they fit into what your ideal neighbourhood would be like.
You need to get some focus or it becomes quite overwhelming, it's a big city and like NYC, has many options and diverse neighbourhoods
Someone might love one area and hate another, it's all subjective, but if you work out what YOU like, you'll have a better chance at finding an area right for you.

One thing I'd add, is you should have a think about your budget and make sure you're being realistic about what you can afford, I see people do it all the time, they can afford the rent but not the council tax etc, so maybe it's worthing doing the following :


you've been job hunting, so you must know what salary bracket you'll fit into. Take the salary and put it into here :
http://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/
This will work out your take home salary.

Then consider :
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/faresandtickets/seasontickets/4805.aspx
This will be the prices of your travel, so that flat in zone 4 might look great, but might look less attractive when you a add £141 travel card.

Also look at something like this :
http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/data/your-council/data/counciltax/data/bands.cfm
Which is council tax prices for my area.
That may add an additional £100-£200 to your rent per month (you'll get an 25% reduction for living alone)

Then consider your food bills, you can get an idea from here :
http://www.sainsburys.com/groceries/index.jsp?bmUID=1232968027157
do an example monthly food shop and see how much you're spending.

Then remember gas/electricity/mobile phone etc.

But generally, if you spend a few hours doing that, you'll have a much more focussed, realistic idea of what lifestyle you'll have and what you can afford. It wont be fun, probably quite boring, but may be essential research before you consider moving.

Best of luck! x

Awesome post. Very helpfuL!