In the past three months Paragon’s London team has noticed that continuing house price declines along with tight mortgage lending conditions has turned would be buyers and sellers into the rental market. This has opened up opportunities for our clients to have a larger selection of quality and more affordable accommodations.

The standards of properties available to let are constantly improving because of the competitive nature of the market. Landlords have adapted by becoming more receptive to negotiations on the terms of the lease and prices of tenancy agreements.

In November, RICS (the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) highlighted a trend that rental properties put on the market far exceeded demand by tenants. Since October 2007, there has been a 56% increase in properties in the lettings market. There has been a clear shift from being a seller’s market to a renter’s market, which has improved quality of housing stock and started to impact rental costs as supply exceeds demands.

Paragon continues to work with our clients to source the best available properties on the market and actively negotiating on asked rental prices to generate cost savings to our clients. For those clients that are still actively moving staff, this represents an ideal opportunity to secure expatriate housing in the UK housing market without breaking the bank.