Apartments on Regent’s Canal near Kentish Town lock, London NW1. They sure don’t all look like this! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Finding the right London apartments can be a logistical pain in the arse, if you’ll pardon my language. Many North Americans moving to London are particularly thrown a curve ball when they arrive, as the UK property market operates so differently. I’ve spoken before plenty-o-times about how London relocation companies assist tremendously with searching for London apartments, particularly when it comes to compiling a large property portfolio to view in a short amount of time and negotiating the fine print of tenancy agreements. To follow, though, are a few quick-in-simple tips to understanding London apartments better as you first approach that process.

London Apartments – Sing a Song of Six-weeks’ Rent

Let’s start with the major quantitative factor: rent. There’s typically a sense of sticker shock once expats realize the prices advertised for London apartments are not in monthly terms but weekly. To determine the actual monthly cost of rent, multiply the weekly price by 4.33 (which equates to the 52 weeks of the year divided by its 12 months).

If the product of that equation doesn’t have you falling to the floor just yet, proceed to factor in your initial deposit. Renting London apartments requires upfront payment on signing your lease agreement; it’s the only way to truly secure your flat, as a landlord’s verbal agreement isn’t worth the spit in your handshake (figuratively speaking, of course…spitting into palms isn’t one of the UK customs I’ll be addressing in this post ). At any rate, the typical deposit on an apartment is six-weeks’ rent, payable in full on top of your first month’s rent. So, on lease signing you must pay:

Weekly rent price x (4.33 + 6)

Thus, assuming an average rent price of £450/week for a two-bedroom flat, for example:

£450 x 10.33 = £4,648.50 down payment

This doesn’t include any administrative fees the lettings agency might charge (which could be anywhere from one to a few hundred GBP, depending on the agency; there’s no real industry standard). By working with London Relocation agents, however, any such fees for renting London apartments are at no extra cost to you; LR’s got it covered!

When it comes to securing an apartment, then, bank transfer is the most efficient, preferred means of payment; credit cards are usually accepted, but a check from an international bank account could take a couple weeks to clear (by which time your flat could be snatched up by someone else if the landlord does back out on you, a practice called “gazumping”).

London Apartments – MLS gone MIA

I mentioned earlier how relocation agencies help with gathering a larger number of apartments for you to view than you’d probably see on your own in the same amount of time. This is due to the fact that lettings agents don’t share a multiple listing database (a.k.a. MLS) that would otherwise enable them to show you any property available anywhere in the city—they’re restricted to their own private listings, which are further restricted to their local area. This requires individual flat-hunters to pinpoint a precise neighborhood first before then visiting any and all lettings agencies in that neighborhood to exhaust all its apartments that meet your criteria (e.g., budget, # bedrooms/bathrooms, etc.).

I can personally attest how frustrating it is to only get to see a couple apartments a day through a single lettings agent, leaving you to walk next door to the next guy and waste a lot of time in the process. If you have the time and energy to spare, though, have at it; ye be warned…

London Apartments – Terms of Endure-ment

Finally, when it comes to your tenancy agreement, make sure you comb through the details to ensure your rights are protected. Other than administrative fees (again, which are waived through the London Relocation agency), you do not pay the lettings agency for your placement; the landlord does. Lettings agents therefore have more incentive to appease the landlords of apartments than you, so unless you have a London relocation agent on your side, you’ll have to exercise supreme savvy. Ensure any requests made of you are reasonable and that anything you request of the landlord—like furnishings, perhaps—are clearly spelled out to avoid he-said/she-said situations after the fact (this market can certainly become that petty).

Lease terms for apartments don’t vary dramatically from those in North America, but one notable difference is the break clause. Essentially, this clause is your “out” if you’re either not satisfied with your property or must move out for other reasons (e.g., visa expiration, money savings, desire to try something different, etc.). Break clauses forare often set at six months—that is, you’re entitled to break your lease after that period and be free of rent obligation beyond it—but you can negotiate this time frame with the landlord. It’s customary to provide two months’ notice of exercising the break clause; understandably, though, you might have to leave on last-minute notice due to factors outside your control. In that case, further negotiation with your landlord will be necessary, which could likely involve forgoing your initial deposit.

London apartments can be fickle mistresses indeed when they’re so elusive to find at a value and with guarantee, but there are some lovely spaces to be had to suit your needs, so just keep smiling and persevere!

In a recent post, I mentioned how the rent and size of London apartments can throw expats moving to London for a loop. Americans in particular are used to their wide-open spaces, especially those living in the suburbs who’ll likewise find city prices a rude awakening.

London is a modern city like New York and San Francisco and thereby shares the demand and consequent high cost of living of such cities. Contrary to what my other post might have implied, it’s not all Charles Dickens and Shakespeare here; we’re not all working in quaint Tudor-style buildings and living under thatched roofing. London has its shiny skyscrapers (the Shard is the latest one piercing the clouds and adding a new dynamic to London’s southeast skyline), and the development of modern apartments is growing, particularly on the east end (e.g., Canary Wharf, the Docklands, and around Olympic Park) or in the southwest around Battersea Park. Nonetheless, for as contemporary and with-it as London is as a world-class city, its abundance of Victorian London apartments still confronts expats with Ye Olde-School concessions.

Stairway to Heavenly London Apartments

Who needs to use the stair-stepper at the gym when you live in historic apartments? With the exception of accommodations for the disabled, stairs are going to be part of your daily reality. Tube stations have ’em, museums have ’em, and those cute red double-decker buses obviously have ’em. The apartments you view (and eventually rent) might be no different. The elevator (or “lift,” in British English) does not make an appearance in many buildings simply because they were constructed before the dawn of such an invention. There are indeed some older buildings, though, that might have had wee lifts built inside them after the fact, but because they had to be retroactively fitted into an existing (thus tighter) space, those can usually only hold a couple people—definitely not your furniture or moving boxes when you’re moving in and out. Regardless, aside from those exceptions, for the most part, you’ve gotta step to it if you want to get home. At least the movers are used to it. They don’t love it, but they know to expect it.

The Perqs of Upper-Story London Apartments

After searching for apartments, I myself moved into one on the second floor (third-floor equivalent in the States) of a 150-year-old terraced house and will confess that I huffed and puffed at the start. Hauling luggage up and down for travels is certainly no treat either. BUT it’s great exercise, and I’ve come to not notice the exertion any more. It’s kept me strong, and I adore our view, eye-level with treetops, a historic church steeple, and classic mansard rooftops atop other apartments on which I expect to see Dick Van Dyke twirl about with his fellow chimneysweeps. And while it may sound silly, one of my daily treats is enjoying the beauty of my building’s wooden period banister all the way up. A gal of aesthetics, I’m easy to please.

As much as I don’t mind (indeed prefer) being on a higher floor now, it’s worth mentioning that there’s admittedly a misconception out there that upper-storey apartments are safer than garden or ground-floor flats. Where burglary is concerned, all London apartments are at equal risk, so I can’t use that argument. But I will say that I feel better knowing not just any schmo walking along the sidewalk can look into our windows or vandalize them. The height also puts us above the sound of traffic, so, while not entirely diminished, the noise pollution is relatively muffled.

Don’t Avoid London Apartments on Upper Floors

When it comes down to it, unless you have a disability warranting it, please don’t close your mind to all the lovely apartments to be had on upper floors JUST because there’s no elevator. Seriously. It’s a tendency for us Americans to waltz over here expecting the thrill of something new and different and yet expecting all our old conveniences (hey, I’m a Yankee, too, so don’t be too offended!), but as I say time and again in this blog, this is the stuff that’s petty relative to what a local lifestyle truly has to offer.  

The London Relocation agency often receives enquiries by fit and able clientele listing first or second floors (which are actually called ground and first floors in Europe, respectively) as mandatory criteria for apartments. Your wishes are certainly your Relocation agent’s command, and they always do their utmost to compile apartments ticking all the boxes you specify. However, you could be missing out on some great spaces and views; these upper apartments literally stand above the rest and are worth at least checking out.