Notting Hill & Kensington View - 3rd April 2008

I'm seeing a lot more property over the last couple of weeks. Very few re-lets though, I've been here for a decade and thought I knew almsot every landlord in Notting Hill, Kensington, Holland Park and Bayswater...... I've been meeting a lot of new people recently! A lot of the new valuations are from recommendation which is always reassuring. Is this a sign that property owners are letting rather than sell? It's good to see that landlords are asking around and then picking up the phone to us whatever the cause.

I'm short of entry level flats below £325 per week. A studio on Lower Addison Gardens with a really nice view of St. John's church and the communal gardens let within 48 per hours.

I can remember when it was hard to move studio flats as tenants had a permanent choice of one bedroom entry level "first time buyer" type flats to choose from in the rental market. The applicants I talk to echo a recurring theme "We can't decide right now whether to buy or rent". It looks like a lot of them are renting. Front page news of "mortgage misery", "sub prime disaster", "the end of the world" certainly sells newspapers but also seems to be undermining confidence and pushing people into renting, short term at least.

We let a £500 per week one bedroom flat on Strathmore Gardens at the weekend and had two competing offers on the same two bedroom flat with direct garden access in Airlie Gardens. We're just agreeing two lets on a new development in Bayswater at around £1000 per week. In the last few days we've registered four more applicants with £1000 per week each looking for two bed flats. Whatever the supposed travails in the city, there are still plenty of people moving into London and looking for a cool pad. From here at least that the City seems to be recruiting as well as ever.

Some of the flats and houses I'm seeing are not up to scratch and I'm having to be brutally honest with landlords - there's no point whatsoever in taking on a property for it to remain empty for weeks and months on end. Every week I see at least half a dozen properties that have lingered for ages (sometimes months) on agents' books. The city bankers renting in the area are the same people traveling to New York in £3500 + business class seats when an economy seat goes for under £400 - but they won't fly again unless if the in flight salad isn't fresh. Tenants pay premium rents to live in Notting Hill and its environs, and have premium expectations to match.

- Leon Bell, Lettings Manager, Notting Hill & Kensington