Catherine Hufton had to use sharp elbows and ingenuity to get the house she wanted in Fulham, west London. She found herself, with a newborn baby and a toddler, competing with ranks of other families also wanting good houses to rent. She had already looked at 30 other houses and knew they were snapped up in an instant as rents rose. “I offered to move the whole family in the next day to make the landlord happy,” she says.
Now they have taken possession, she and her husband, Michael, who works in banking, are enormously relieved. “The family house in a good area is hard to come by,” she says. “I had to be ready to make a decision on the spot without waiting for my husband to see it too. I went into a bidding war with two other people. We offered above the asking price and locked ourselves into a 24-month lease.” With William just 20 weeks and Sophie aged two, she had a lot to contend with.
The couple knew the sector because they had been renting for more than seven years. “Two years ago, when the rental market was slack, we could have offered below the asking price, demanded pieces of furniture and all our requests would have been granted,” she says.
The Huftons don’t yet feel they can afford to buy in an area like Fulham, where family size houses sell at around £950,000 and might require a deposit of up to 40 per cent.
“We can get a better house to rent than we can afford to buy, close to the nursery schools which feed the good schools here.”
Renting also gives them flexibility for future moves, and they don’t have to worry when the gutters need painting or the cooker fixing. There are plenty more like them. Those who can’t buy are renting, and families who can’t sell are letting and moving on to rent.
This year alone, according to the HomeLet Rental Index, rental values have gone up by 12 per cent across London. The rush to rent has knocked agents off their feet not just in London, but all over the country.
“The past few months have been quite unprecedented,” says Zoe Rose, head of London lettings at Strutt & Parker. “In the family house market especially there has been a mad frenzy, with prospective tenants in what can only be described as a panicked state, offering and completing tenancies in record times.”
She believes families are waiting out the dull sales market by sheltering in rented properties. Those wanting to move during the summer in time for the next school term began looking much earlier than usual.
“They realised there is a real shortage of good houses. Once they started to get out and about and view houses, the panic set in as it dawned on them how little was available and how quickly properties were going.”
Why is there so little to go around? Douglas & Gordon, with offices across much of London, says it had 30 per cent fewer properties to offer in June compared to the same time last year, but this was compounded by tenants deciding to renew their leases.
“Our figures show long-term tenancies are becoming more common,” says Virginia Skilbeck, director of lettings. “Over 50 per cent of our tenancies which should have ended in June have been renewed, and 64 per cent of landlords put the rents up.”
In Esher, John D Wood reports that there are three families for every available property. In Cobham there is a real shortage of smaller cottages at under £4,000 per month.
One man gave away his dog in order to offer himself as “the ideal tenant”. In Weybridge, Surrey, where the problem is exacerbated by house-hunters from Russia and the United States wanting to be near the International School, they report a “surge of interest from families”.
There is a powerful underlying reason for this. The solicitors and licensed conveyancers’ body, 1st Property Lawyers, says almost one in three transactions in the first six months of this year fell through, so people are turning to renting.
People in their twenties and thirties can no longer afford to buy, so they are renting already. There may be an unexpected side effect. As we become a nation of renters, according to an HSBC survey, we could turn into a nation of “street strangers”, as renters do not always bother to introduce themselves or look out for neighbours.
The leap to letting has been phenomenal. The Association of Residential Lettings Agents found that two years ago, 10 per cent of its members nationwide reported an undersupply of property to rent, and just 8 per cent in London. Now 74 per cent nationwide and 82 per cent in London are reporting a famine.
Well-heeled families are finding they can afford the country gentleman lifestyle without having to buy, as big estates are offering up spare farmhouses and manors to let during the recession.
Kevin Cook and his wife, Andrea, and their three children sold their high-end barn conversion in Smallwood, Cheshire. They decided that, rather than enter into a long chain, they would slip into an estate house being let by Strutt & Parker.
“The higher up the market you are, the more vulnerable you are to links of the chain collapsing. It meant we could focus on making the sale happen,” he says.
“I don’t feel I need to rush off and buy a house. We are in a lovely estate farmhouse with peace and quiet and the three dogs love it. It is an idyllic home which we might not otherwise have experienced.”
Top tips to avoid missing out
1 Before viewing, list the factors you will compromise on and the ones you won’t.
2 Be prepared to make a fast decision.
3 Bring a friend or relation for a second opinion.
4 Research the area and the local market first.
5 Get references and deposit ready in advance.
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