Letting agents optimistic about rental market, claims Homelet

A staggering 86% of letting agents expect the lettings market to stay the same or grow over the next 12 months, according to a HomeLet survey.

Only 6% of agents polled by independent research company Progressive, on behalf of the landlord and tenant insurance provider, believe that the rental market will shrink.

HomeLet managing director, John Boyle says: “Despite the recession, it appears that concerns about the oversupply of rental properties, due to the increasing number of reluctant landlords looking to let properties they are unable to sell, are not dampening people’s spirits.”

Vernon Hall, Director of Martin & Co. Chesterfield agrees: “We should see market increases over the 12 months because of the opportunities which exist for landlords.

“Anyone who previously had cash in the bank has seen that diminish and is now turning to the property market for a good annual return on their investment.”

He adds: “I don’t think the oversupply of rental property will have a negative impact on the market while there’s a national housing shortage.

“However, in the short term, rents are falling because tenants now have more choice therefore landlords have to supply good standard of accommodation at a reasonable rate.”

Thursday, 23 April 2009

Martin & Co Chesterfield appoint new staff members

Martin & Co Chesterfield recently made some additions to their staff base and confirmed the appointment of their New Lettings Manager.

Liza Rothery has successfully completed her induction with lettings specialists Martin & Co Chesterfield as Lettings Manager. Liz Murray joins as Lettings Administrator, with Laura Hudson as Lettings Negotiator.

Director Vernon Hall, said: “I am delighted to welcome Liz and Laura as part of the Martin & Co team. Together with Liza’s confirmation as Lettings Manager, this will consolidate our position as the market leader. The company has established a superb name and reputation across the country and I am looking forward to continuing the success of the franchise network at a local level”.

“Liz and Laura’s arrival heralds an era of expansion as the business goes from strength to strength with increased demand for lettings. We are expanding our operations and need to invest in our staffing levels to ensure we continue to deliver consistent levels of excellent customer service”.

Friday, 17 April 2009

Martin & Co Honoured as Best Letting Agency

Letting agency Martin & Co has just been awarded the UK’s “Best Letting Agent” at the Estate and Letting Agency Awards (or ESTAs) in London this week. The prestigious award was presented to Martin & Co’s Managing Director Ian Wilson by media personality and journalist Phil Spencer of Channel 4’s “Location, Location, Location”, who said “these awards are particularly special, and a true reflection of excellence in customer service as they are only awards in the industry which are voted for by the landlords and tenants themselves. They are not easily won, and require a letting agency to achieve a consistently high level of service to their clients over a 12 month period.” Over 30,000 questionnaires were sent out to customers across the UK. On receiving the award, Ian Wilson said “it is a privilege to win such an award, and it is a tribute to the hard work, dedication, and passion of our franchise owners and their staff. We aim only to recruit, and help our franchisees recruit, only the very best in the business – those who care about giving great service! In a property industry where many sales-based estate agents have recently forayed into lettings out of necessity, this award has clearly demonstrated that landlords and tenants prefer to work with a lettings specialist who will be around next year and the year after. I am especially pleased that it was our customers themselves who voted for us, and I’d like to thank all those who took the trouble by taking part in this independent survey.” This award comes only months after Martin & Co scooped the Negotiator Magazine Franchisor of the Year award at the end of 2008.

ESTA Gold

Saturday, 11 April 2009

Tenancy Deposit Protection proves effective for The Deposit Protection Service’s largest client

On the second anniversary of the scheme (April 2007 – April 2009), figures have been released which show that protection of tenant’s deposits and the schemes have made real progress in their quest to deliver a more secure system for the public. According to the latest survey from The Deposit Protection Service (DPS), some 91% of tenants feel safer since tenancy deposit legislation was introduced 2 years ago.

“Martin & Co has over 13,000 deposits lodged with the DPS and a monetary value in excess of 10 million – making Martin & Co the DPS’s largest client both in terms of volume of deposits and value, and this scheme has been a great success for our customers” commented Vernon Hall, Director of Martin & Co Chesterfield.

“At Martin & Co we are committed to making it easy for landlords to comply with the increasing amount of mostly positive legislation that regulates the letting of a property. There is generally a low awareness of issues such as the important differences between the various tenancy deposit options and our role as a specialist letting agency is to clarify these, so that letting out, or renting, a property is as straightforward and secure as possible”

Wednesday, 08 April 2009

UK Nears Bottom of the Rental Market

Finaproperty’s latest Rental Index Report reveals the folowing;

Monthly % UK rental price changes with 3 month average trend

The rate at which asking rents are falling and the volume of stock is rising has slowed over the past three months, signalling that the UK rental market may be reaching the bottom of the cycle.

Average rents in March 2009 were £827 pcm compared with £830 pcm in February 2009 and £873 pcm in March 2008. (A £46pcm or 5.3% fall year-on-year).

Continued tenant activity has reduced the average time a property is on the market by five days over the month to 65 days, but time on the market remains up by 17 days year-on-year.

The UK is becoming a tale of two markets: house rentals have seen supply levels stabilise and start to fall (-1.3% month-on-month decrease in March 2009), whilst the supply of rental flats continues to rise (3.9% month-on-month increase in March 2009).

Rents in London continue to fall, but again at a slower rate, with asking rents falling by 1.1% month-on-month and by 6.9% year-on-year.

UK rental yield remains stable at 4.65%. However, this disguises the true picture which sees yields for houses stabilise at 4.41% (a very similar value as February 2009 (4.40%) and March 2008 (4.40%), whilst yields for flats have climbed for the third consecutive month to 5.31%.

The second quarter of 2009 will be a key period for determining whether this is the beginning of a genuine recovery in the rental market.

Patterns in the supply and demand for rental properties will also provide key indicators on the state of the UK sales market.

Regional Market

The regional UK rental market remained relatively stable during March 2009 with eight regions recording modest falls in asking rents, two regions recording modest rises and one showing no change.

Rental asking prices fell in London (-1.1%), East Midlands (-0.6%), East of England (-1.4%), North East England (-0.6%), South West England (-1.8%), Wales (-0.9%), West Midlands (-0.2%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (-0.8%). South East England did not record any changes in average asking rents in March 2009.

The largest rise in rental prices was seen in the North West where monthly asking rents increased by 0.8% to £597 pcm. However, the region continues to show the greatest decline in rental asking prices over a 12 month period, with a year-on-year fall of -13.5%.

This is over double the rate of fall in any other region. Greater Manchester, in the North West region, has seen even larger falls with asking rents down by -17.2% since March 2008.

Wednesday, 08 April 2009