One side effect of the unpredictable housing market at the moment is that the lettings market is experiencing something of a renaissance. Northfields Estate Agency, building on their recent accolade as the best letting agent in the UK, have responded to this demand and opened a new office in Paddington.
Landlords have had a difficult few years as financing became more difficult, but market conditions are now starting to favour the lettings market. Buy-to-let mortgage specialist Paragon's latest ‘Private Rented Sector Trends Report’ has revealed nearly half of landlords reported that tenant demand rose during the first quarter of 2011. In fact the proportion of landlords reporting increasing levels of tenant demand has now risen for seven consecutive quarters. This is due to a number of factors, including low numbers of first-time buyers, social housing reforms, and London’s continued resilience to the wider economic downturn.
Paddington’s short commute into central London attracts first time buyers and buy–to-let investors alike, while larger homes situated in the Little Venice and Westbourne Green areas offer families good space. More affordable property can be found within the Bayswater area, where there are larger houses converted into flats and ex-local authority houses.
Northfields Managing Director, Richard Palfreeman, said, “Paddington is an area we have wanted to extend our services to for years. With consistently growing tenant demand, the new developments like Paddington Basin, and our winning the Lettings Agency of the Year we felt this was the right time to take that step.”
Silvia Eldawi, Northfields Lettings Director, said, “We put some staff in the office in February to get a feel for how the market would respond, even investing in new branding that will be passed onto all our other offices. Demand has been strong and we’ve currently got 39 properties on our books. This area is really hot at the moment, the right kinds of properties move very fast.”
“Every landlord wants not only high occupancy, but good quality tenants. Our relationship with international relocation agents is so important to delivering landlords the highest calibre of tenant, which translates into better rents, longer occupancy and simply less hassle”.
The official launch last week was an opportunity to get staff and local landlords mingling, and to celebrate the early successes of the office. If you would like to find out more about Northfield’s award-winning lettings service you can contact the team on 020 7402 6554.
