Searching for a house to rent west in London often turns into a real full-time job: you can look for a dream apartment for rent for more than one week. Experienced Londoners know all these things themselves, and for those who are going to look for housing for the first time, ZIMA explains how to find your house to rent in London and what pitfalls to fear.
How to Start Your Search for the Best renting sites London, UK
Any search for housing should start with basic criteria: any aggregator site or realtor will ask you for them, so you should decide on them in advance.
Area
Different parts of London differ from each other like other cities and countries, and it’s better to immediately understand where exactly you want to live.
Newcomers to the city can search for neighbourhood descriptions on Airbnb or Move bubble and choose whether to live in bustling Shore ditch or cosy Hammersmith.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution: someone wants to rent an apartment closer to the office, someone wants to property close to the office, someone wants to rent an apartment in a neighbourhood with good schools for children and still others need a block where the night metro already reaches – so that it is more convenient to return from clubs on Friday after midnight.
Choose an area to your liking, but keep in mind that one rule still works for almost everyone: the price rises depending on the proximity to the centre.
Budget
Room is usually expensive, and the closer you are to the city centre or to places with a large number of offices like Canary Wharf, the more expensive. It is difficult to calculate the average: the prices for renting a one-bedroom apartment in a good area usually start at £ 1,500 per month – and on and on. Decide right away how much you are willing to pay for a roof over your head – and keep in mind that on sites with ads, monthly utility bills are often not included in the price, which can cost an extra couple of hundred pounds.
Important details
The presence of your own garden or balcony, the number of properties with furniture or an empty one, a multi-story residential building in a new area or a traditional British terrace house with shutters on the windows – it is better to write out all the important criteria for you in advance and take into account when searching.
The presence or absence of neighbours
For the UK-speaking mentality, living in a room with neighbours gives off something like a communal apartment, but in London, an apartment shared between several people is treated as a simple way to seriously save on rent.
If you decide to live with neighbours, then the number of criteria and pitfalls can room: be sure to decide on the number of strangers you are willing to tolerate on a shared living space, the rules of joint behaviour in a rented apartment and a schedule for visiting a shared bathroom.
Where and how to find a rental apartment in London
The most popular sites for finding affordable double room to rent and Right move, the most convenient way to search for a room and neighbours is through Spare room. You can leaf through ads yourself – or entrust everything to an agent (agency contacts are available on the websites). You can also search locally: in any area you like, there will be offices of a couple of local agencies. But keep in mind – you will have to pay a commission for the work. How much depends on the agency, but usually, it is several hundred pounds. The British Parliament is now trying to ban these levies since it is not obvious to everyone (read: no one understands) what exactly they are charged for. But they are unlikely to be banned shortly.
Good apartments leave quickly, and you shouldn’t put off viewing the ads you like “for the weekend” – it’s best to run and look at the room right away. Do not be discouraged if the search for an apartment of your dreams is delayed: it is almost impossible to find it “outright”, and many newly minted Londoners change their debut apartment at the first opportunity.
What documents to prepare to rent an apartment in London
The main problem for migrants is the traditional British system of reviews. Any agency will ask you for the contacts of the previous landlord – and an acquaintance who leases you a room on the outskirts of Moscow will not be suitable for this.
The easiest way to resolve the issue is through your place of work or study. A letter from an employer or university and a UK bank account most often solve the problem. Sometimes you will need to talk directly to the landlord – the owner of the apartment – and explain your situation to him. In some cases, they may request payment for several months in advance in the absence of recommendations.
In any case, the agency will deal with the preparation of documents. All you need to do is sign a contract, make the first payment, pick up the keys – and move into your new home.
How much will it all cost
As already mentioned, a one-bedroom apartment in London’s 2-3 zones is rented for £ 1,500 per month, a room in the option with neighbours – from £ 600. There is practically no upper limit on the rental price, but a slightly cheaper apartment further from the centre will not help you much to save money: the difference will most likely be eaten by the price of transport. Searching for the best double room for rent in West London.
Utility bills (city tax, water, electricity, internet, etc.) are highly dependent on the size of the room and the area, they rarely go less than a couple of hundred pounds per month. In winter, due to heating, the communal apartment will be larger, in summer it will be less.
When signing the contract, you will also have to pay a deposit – usually, this is the price of 4 to 6 weeks of rent. Agency commission for work and referencing fees – a few hundred more pounds.
Identify importantly
For example, it is important for me that a room has a modern and clean bathroom. Old houses in London often have problems with plumbing, so I was looking for apartments only in new buildings. This greatly facilitated my task: all new apartments look the same, all that was left was to choose an area. Newcomers, as a rule, live in the centre in the first years, in the first two or three zones of London – it is easier to commute to work. The area is usually looked for to spend 20-30 minutes on the road one way.
New buildings are also good because they often have concierges. This is very convenient: they keep order around the clock and receive parcels. And parcels come here often because you can buy anything over the Internet. But the old buildings are nicer, they often have apartments on several floors and they have their own gardens.
