A Complete Guide to securing the best flats in London for yourself
It can be the soaring real estate market or the growing need to find yourself more than just a “decent enough” accommodation, finding a flat in London is no episode of DIY SOS. You won’t have professional home-building crews buzzing your doorbell anytime soon, but what you can have is a meticulous theory to hunting down the perfect flat for yourself. London real estate is considered to be one of the most ballooning industries of all time with the steep rent often discouraging many a hard-worker from investing ample time or effort into digging up the right dirt. However, we have researched some of the most successful ways people have hunted down the perfect abode for themselves, and if you find yourself in the middle of a similar quest, this streamlined piece is a must-read for you.
Don’t Budge from your Budget
Your budget for the entire ordeal is quite possibly the very first thing you should consider when it comes to finding the perfect flat. London’s real estate has never been any steeper and it shows. However, that does not mean you can’t get to live in a dream flat. The key to budget control is to have a clear idea of exactly how much you are willing to spend on your flat. You can be looking for a permanent solution to a luxurious stay or simply look at renting options that seem feasible enough, but either way going out of your budget always seems to be a bad idea. You wouldn’t want your sporadic decisions of the present projecting tough times for you in the future. Experts reveal, housing costs in London can be as high as 50% of your net take home and that’s why a strict budget range can save you a good deal of your time. Select your budget range and keep that in the forefront always as you go about selecting your preferred flat.
Itsy Bitsy Indulgences
While you may have a fixed budget that you don’t want to budge from, you need to consider all the other miscellaneous expenses you might incur during the flat finding process. In fact, these small expenses continue even after you’ve secured the flat for yourself and hence, some rainy day money on the side would be good for you. You wouldn’t want to miss out on the deal of a lifetime.
Homework Time
Take your homework seriously before you head out. We are not talking about having a brief overview of the housing market, but an elaborate portion of knowledge on ‘where and how much’. The first thing to consider when you’re looking for a flat is the competitive price range that is currently trending in the market. Some peeps end up paying £640 with additional £80-100 on bills while some settle for £500-550. However, these are strictly based on the area you want to inhabit and that brings us to the second part of our Homework Time. Your primary research should be encircling two broad questions- the place you want to stay and the number of people you’ll be accommodating with you. These two variable factors can change how you look at budgeting and areas. To give you a head start on the factors people frequent when they are looking for a flat, we have rounded up a few factors in our next point that you might want to consider.
Lifestyle Choices
Keep your way of living in mind before settling down for a flat. The first thing to consider when looking for a flat is the ease of convenience and that includes not just grocery stores and chemists in and around the area, but also distance from a place you frequent, readily available mode of transport, and more. Start by choosing the Zone of your choice. Usually, zone 1 to 4 is pretty conveniently located close to the Central London Tube Stations but the further you go from zone 1, the less feasible transportation seems. Once you finalize your preferred zone, you can zero in on the area to inhabit. Parallel to this should be your consideration of the number of flat sharers you would want to live with. Just remember, with the flat prices and the rents soaring higher and higher, the more the merrier seems just about right, but don’t over-cramp your flat with that given thought. Find out the fine line between flat-sharing and finding your own space and settle down for that.
Now, we move on to the most important question of the hour, with all the research and budgeting at your fingertips, how will you go about the flat finding part?
Flat Finding at the Least Stressful Way Ever
- Try Property Websites- Modern problems call for modern solutions and hence when it comes to hunting down the perfect flat in today’s world, the World Wide Web has the answer to your queries. You can often find innumerable online platforms that have a diverse range of flats ready for you to move in. However, there’s a catch. Online is often misleading and we don’t want you putting your efforts in the wrong direction. Hence, we request you to always have a crisp and clear brief about the website you’re frequenting.
- Try the local daily- You can even make yourself a regular at the local newsstand where the dailies list up a bunch of available options for you to surf from. With the internet sometimes playing the careless cousin, we would often want to put our faith on something more traditional and concrete, and the local daily could not have been a better place.
- Don’t shy away from word of mouth- Sometimes a jewel of a place can just be a stone’s throw away, only if you speak to the right person at the right time. Even though it may sound superfluous or unreliable, often someone close to you may have the answer to what you’re searching for. All we are saying is, don’t dismiss an opportunity of finding out from your friends and acquaintances whether they know of a sudden flat landlord looking for a keen tenant.
- Get yourself a Real Estate Agent- Even after everything, if you’re still not satisfied with the place of your choice, we suggest getting in touch with a real estate agent who likes you. Yes! This is important. We have all had our fair share of animosity towards real estate agents but the truth is, whenever a property gets listed on the market, it’s your real estate agent who gets the first dirt on how and what. Even if you don’t like them much, you need to make sure you are one of the first applicants they call before putting the property out on the market once again.
Once you’ve found the flat that you’ve been looking for, there are a few other integral procedures you should complete. This includes checking the place for termites, signs of dilapidation, and so on to make sure you don’t find yourself going over the whole process once again in a few months. If the place you’ve chosen comes with a few existing tenants, make sure you converse with them before saying yes to the place to make sure harmony prevails even after you move in. Apart from there are paperwork and more to be kept in mind, but with the right preparation, this whole process won’t seem so tedious.