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Renting property is no picnic

Friday, 12 November 2010 12:00 AM

Ele Cooper tries to rent a flat in London and finds the market really is as bad as everyone says it is.

We've all heard how tough the market currently is for prospective renters - the extent to which demand is outstripping supply is quite ludicrous - but I hadn't truly appreciated the severity of the problem until about a month ago, when I needed to find a place myself.

My friends and I had decided that Clapham was the area for us: lots happening, nice properties, and far enough out of central London to get cheapish rent. Or so we thought. Apparently, we were being very, very naive: one agent actually laughed at me when I told her our budget, while others said that our wish-list wouldn't be unrealistic if there was actually anything on the market.

After an entire day spent calling agents, I had registered with more than 40 and yet come across only two properties that sounded even remotely suitable. Upon viewing them, it transpired there was a reason they were still on the market - as I was quickly learning, anything that's half decent gets snapped up within a matter of hours.

Finally, one drizzly Friday, I thought my luck was in. Having refreshed Gumtree every ten minutes for the past six hours, a gorgeous-looking mansion conversion popped up. Newly refurbished, three huge doubles, gated development on a well-located road? Yes please. I immediately booked a viewing - the first the agent was doing - and upon seeing it we put in an offer on the spot.

Now where I come from, if you are the first to view a rental property and immediately offer the asking price, that's it. Finito. Hands shaken, forms signed, and a celebratory pint at the new local. Not so. There was a queue of hopeful viewers outside and the agent thought it would be 'unfair' not to let them see the property too. We subsequently became embroiled in a vicious bidding war, which culminated in our being unceremoniously flung from the battlefield when our competitors offered a whopping 40 per cent above the asking price.

Two weeks later, our ambitions having taken a southerly shift down to Balham (which is cheaper than Clapham), and then further south to Tooting (cheaper still), we had seen every former crack den on the market and a hell of a lot of properties where the third 'double' bedroom was the size of a hamster cage. Then out of the blue came our perfect flat - cheap, modern and homely. The agent told us he 'thought' it would be available from mid-October, which would leave one of my friends homeless for two weeks. Turned out, it wasn't actually going to be vacated until the beginning of November. The agent told us that he would call us if anyone put in an offer and give us 'first dibs' if we decided that we wanted to take it.

Less than 24 hours later, the dreaded call came through. After a frantic email conference with my two friends, we decided we would offer the asking price and my chum would just have to couch-surf for a month. "Ok," the agent said, "I'll speak to the landlord and get back to you on what he decides." Me: "Um, what do you mean, 'what he decides'? Surely there isn't anything for him to decide?" Agent: "Well the other party has put in an offer too and I'm legally obliged to tell the landlord about both."

Now, I know a conversation involving the words 'first dibs' is far from legally binding, but I was outraged. Needless to say, we found ourselves in another bidding war, and once again we were thwarted, this time by a modest 20 per cent above asking price (we drew the line at ten).

The following Saturday, at our wits' end, we vowed to sign for a flat by the end of the day, regardless of the calibre of what we saw. And that's how this modern-day fairy-less tale ends: no house-shaped white knight wielding huge bedrooms, stylish decor and beautiful furniture, just a so-so flat. Woodchip wallpaper throughout, a cooker that looks 50 years old, and some highly dubious furniture - but cheap rent, right next to a tube station, with a roof terrace. In other words, it's ok - and I know I'm lucky to have found anything at all.

The housing cuts announced in the spending review could well worsen an already-bad situation, with increasing numbers needing to rent privately: the cuts will bring an end to council housing 'for life', while the likelihood of being able to afford to move onto the property ladder for most of us currently renting in the private sector is increasingly slim. Where on earth all of us are going to live when the market's already flooded with renters remains to be seen - but I have a feeling that, in a year or so's time, woodchip wallpaper will be the least of our worries.

What do you think? Leave a comment in the box below...

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