Negotiation on flats to let?

Do tell....Are you able to, or expected to, negotiate on the asking price of flats for let in London (or houses for let on the outskirts) ?

I have been reading quite a lot and have seen references made to, "making an offer on a flat" but, these were in the context of a rental - rather than a purchase, where to me, it would make sense....I've never negotiated on the price of rent before ?

Anyone have any suggestions, tips, tricks, etc?

B.

I have never heard of negotiating the rent on a flat or a house.  I would inquire with your estate agent.  Take a look at this website too.
HTH
expat
http://www.ukdiscovered.com/finding_a_home/tips2.html

Our estate agent told us that it is quite common to do some negotiating on rents.  The house we are renting actually had other offers, but none at the asking price,which we felt was reasonable, made an offer, and are moving in this weekend!  Anyway, if can't hurt to make an offer that is lower than asking, if you think it will work for you.

Stephanie

This is the thing....we don't know what works vs. what doesn't work.

We were in London this weekend to look at a couple of flats and WOW were we surprised....not at all what we expected.

I'm flying over in a couple of weeks to interview for job and I'd like to see a few flats to get an idea of what is out there for what price. In Philadelphia I would call a real estate agent who specializes in rentals. I'm picking up the impression this isn't how you do things in London. (Must be too straight forward) I don't want to waste a lot of time I just want to see what's out there. When I finally move I may be in a position to buy so I'm not sure what to do. I want my time on this trip to be productive - it's not as though I can hop in the car and drive back for a day! I'm middle-aged and single, if that makes a difference. Any suggestions? BTW, I followed the link above and it was helpful. The best suggestion there was not to give too much information. (An American failing)

Mary,

My wife and I flew over to London for a weekend to have a look at some places....all of which were complete CRAP. We were in touch with at least a dozen estate agents giving them general requirements like size, location, etc.  None of them seemed to pay any attention to our requests, showing us pretty much whatever they had. No matter if it fit our requirements or not.

None of the agents knew much about the flats other than the obvious things: "here's the bedroom....here's the bathroom"

When asked what the square footage was, they would obviously guess or make something up - as we were told that one place was 1000 sq. feet - and I PROMISE YOU, there was NOOOO WAAAAY it was even 600 sq. feet.

I don't know what i would suggest, other than to get ready to look - A LOT.

To quote the one Londoner that I know:

"All estate agents are liars...."



BNH a Paris

Negotiating rent seems a bit more common now that the rental market is softening than it was, say, six months ago. I've recently been looking for a new flat myself and I've found a lot more willingness to give from landlords.

You'll get much more (and nicer) flat for your money if you widen your scope to outside of the city centre. I finally found a nice, reasonably spacious flat in a great Battersea location with a rent roughly the same as a run-down matchbox-sized garret in WC1.

Properties here (at least rental properties) are simply not sized in square feet (or metres). Get used to hearing vague phrases like "one double bedroom" (meaning: one bedroom into which it is theoretically possible to fit a double-sized bed; you may or may not actually get space to walk around the bed as well).

Like they all said: estate agents mostly suck.

I passed the interview so I will be looking for housing. I appreciate all of the advise. Overall it sounds like my landlord nightmares are going to return.