Letting apartment taking ages

minion said:

No need to do this, unless your place is worse than the others at that price. Then its worth less - obviously.

You need to pirce within current market rates. No higher. No lower.
You just need to improve your own letting skills.


You'll be seeing a lot of posts from non-landlords telling you to price lower.
And a lot from amateur landlords telling you to price higher.

But most landlords in here know the business and will give you good advice.

If others with similar properties are reducing their asking prices, then reduce yours to be the same as the average.
Again, if your place is in good condition and well presented you will have no problem letting it.

On agents - my pet hate - Ditch them if at all possible. They will gouge your money out of you for doing nothing more than you can easily do yourself in far less time, and then take no responsibility if things go wrong. In my book, taking your money means assuming responsibility for their work.

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Any chance the non-landlords are renters perhaps? You might also be so kind as to how he/she might improve their letting skills....

There are 3 ways to go, look for a high price and accept a empty period, look for a low price to avoid an empty period and make something from the place or sell the place and be done with it

there is a lot of competition in that neck of the woods, 56 apartments for let in citywest alone, supply and demand is what it comes down to, if its a buyer/renter market then price is going to be a factor

contemporary said:

Any chance the non-landlords are renters perhaps? You might also be so kind as to how he/she might improve their letting skills....

There are 3 ways to go, look for a high price and accept a empty period, look for a low price to avoid an empty period and make something from the place or sell the place and be done with it

there is a lot of competition in that neck of the woods, 56 apartments for let in citywest alone, supply and demand is what it comes down to, if its a buyer/renter market then price is going to be a factor

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Quite possibly they are renters, or maybe they have their own house and dont rent, or maybe they are amateur investors who dont really do it seriously. Just have one property for rent after they got married and moved into the spouse. Or they could be a syndicate of a few friends who decided to give property investment a go. Could be many types of people really.

Yes, market price is the price it should be on for, no higher, no less, for obvious reasons.
Which would not be any of the 3 options you give here. Look for the market price - is the right strategy.

To improve their skills its much like any other business. Due care and attention to such things as presentation, where you advertise, how you advertise, what kind of tennant you want to attract, personal image (you dont want to come accross as a grumpy old git of a landlord), selling skills. How you treat your existing tennant or potential tennant is extremely important. Have a fast turn around on anything that needs doing.

If you dont involve an agent you will have more leeway in the rent you wish to charge. You can group the viewings in the evening, so as not to use up too much of your time if you are busy. Really there wont be many occasions when you will have to fix stuff if you use quality fittings in the first place so not much time spent there.

Know a couple of reliable handymen who you can call on if anything does break.


Anyway OP, you could be reading us all argue about this all year.

My best advice to you is :
Remember its a business.
research and know inside out your particular market. Its different for each type of property, area and tenant. Target your advertising, presentation, asking price etc accordingly. Cut out the agent.

Nothing at all you havent read in here before.

minion said:

Yes, market price is the price it should be on for, no higher, no less, for obvious reasons.
Which would not be any of the 3 options you give here. Look for the market price - is the right strategy.

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But how do you calculate the market price? Remember the rental prices listed on Daft and in the papers are only asking prices; the actual price that tenants are willing to rent them out for may be nowhere near those figures.

EDIT: Does anyone know if the PRTB is legally obliged to provide this information (i.e. the market rate) to the public? The law states that rents can not be set above the market rate. How can that be enforced if nobody knows what the market rate is in the first place?

Afuera said:

But how do you calculate the market price? Remember the rental prices listed on Daft and in the papers are only asking prices; the actual price that tenants are willing to rent them out for may be nowhere near those figures.

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I would say that this rarely happens unless you are talking about high end expensive property.

the problem the OP has is that they cannot shift it at the market price...so whats the point telling them to keep it at the market price? an empty building dosent make you a penny!

starlite68 said:

the problem the OP has is that they cannot shift it at the market price...so whats the point telling them to keep it at the market price? an empty building dosent make you a penny!

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Without knowing the exact details of the state of the property, asking price etc, we cant really say its not renting.

What i will say though is that if its on a par with other properties for rent that are renting and the rent is market price then its the agent thats the problem.

I thought that the market price is the price that does shift goods/services ie the price that matches producers and consumers. Maybe I need to re-read economics 101!

Sounds as if the rent required/demanded by the producers (ie landlords) is too sticky and needs to adjust downwards to the market clearing price.

minion,,i still think the OP will have to drop the price in order to to have the competitive edge over similar properties around him/her.....but i agree with you that they should drop the agent and have a go at letting the place themselves.......if noting else it will give them a better feel for the business.

I suppose it all depends what market the op is looking for,i am currently renting and would be classed as a professional.I don't mind paying market rates (won't pay anymore though) but i expect a modern well furnished property with parking for my money.
For that,my landlord gets a good tenant who pays on time and respects his property and doesn't bother him with trivial problems,likewise i don't appreciate "visits" every few weeks.
I use daft to find property and only select properties with Pictures to view, i've often seen properties on daft advertised at market rates that clearly have had no upgrading in years,maybe there looking for a different market but personally i wouldn't touch them.
Invariably i have found that i select the property i want, rather than the landlord selecting me as a tenant , but maybe i've been just lucky.

minion said:

Yes, market price is the price it should be on for, no higher, no less, for obvious reasons.

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Given the amount of places available and not renting, the market price apparantly is too high at the moment as nobody seems to be able to rent the place out.

So if the market price is too hight there is only one thing todo: you need to go lower.
Easy maths: if you lower the rent for 10% and you can then let it out 11 months a year instead of 10 you are still making more money.

minion said:

No need to do this, unless your place is worse than the others at that price. Then its worth less - obviously.

You need to pirce within current market rates. No higher. No lower.
You just need to improve your own letting skills.


You'll be seeing a lot of posts from non-landlords telling you to price lower.
And a lot from amateur landlords telling you to price higher.

But most landlords in here know the business and will give you good advice.

If others with similar properties are reducing their asking prices, then reduce yours to be the same as the average.
Again, if your place is in good condition and well presented you will have no problem letting it.

On agents - my pet hate - Ditch them if at all possible. They will gouge your money out of you for doing nothing more than you can easily do yourself in far less time, and then take no responsibility if things go wrong. In my book, taking your money means assuming responsibility for their work.

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Without seeming offensive, that is a very naive wiewpoint.

The asking prices out there at the moment in the rental market ar clarly NOT the market price. There is too much overhang. The market price at present is BELOW asking prices.

If you price with the pack at the moment you are above the market and to let it at the same price against maybe a dozen other options open to you potential tenant would come down to pot luck.

The most astute LLs in the current market will:

• Assume that their property is no better than anyone elses (don'tyou see the absurdity that every LL on this site makes the same claim how their apartment is nicer/better than the rest on the market).
• Assume that any potential tenant faced with a choice of your apartment and others (there are lots of other at the moment) for the same price will opt for one of the others.
• Realise that market condition of excess supply exist and hence the market rental is below the visible asking prices out there.

To do otherwise is naive in the extreme.

Try a 'mystery call' to the agent as a prospective renter, and see if your place gets recommended.

The OP hasnt supplied us full details, like their ad, so none of us know the true state of the property or what they are asking for or looking for in a tennant, or how it compares to other properties in the area, therefore we are not sure if they have ot at market rates at all.

So none of us know at all market rates for his property.

All i was trying to do was tell him to research, make sure he has his particular market rate and to let for this. If it is not shifting for that price and other places of the same market types are (no need to keep repeating what differentiates property markets i think) then they are doing something wrong and will need to fix this. This is not to do with price as he would have done his research and have it at the market price.


The market price is not the same for all classes of property for let in an area - see coolhandlukes post as the clearest explanation you can get of this.

If he puts some effort in , the OP can stand out from the market and get market rent for their property. Its easily done.

We're just going around in circles here i think.
Lets agree to disagree then.

I have dropped the price by 100 the way I see it at this stage is that it has been vacant 5 weeks which means I have pretty much lost over 1000, each week it is vacant its costing me so whats 100 quid compared to losing over 1k a month. Im no expert in the area unfortunately I moved in with my boyfriend and we want to hang onto it and its not worth selling at the moment. Thanks for the advice, reviewed the letting agent, ads going up in large local businesses, sign going up and hassling the letting agent more. I may get rid of letting agent in the future but for the moment as an amatuer in these things Im gonna stick with it. Thanks for all the advice

The recent report from Daft shows that rents are going down so this would appear to be the correct action. Best of luck with it.