short term housing in London
 

I will be in London on business for two months this spring and am looking for a place to live that's affordable and near a tube stop. Any reccomendations would be wonderful. <BR> <BR>Thanks!

You may want to visit <BR>http://www.London4Rent.com <BR>some budget some luxury rentals

I've been searching for the same and have found a number of excellent web sites listing "serviced apartments". www.globalresident.com spit out forty properties, including many studios. It is the most flexible and informative. there are many others. Just go to Google and do a search on +london+apartment+rentals, but try Global Resident first.

Topping for the "new" London Apartment Rental thread.

A serviced apartment will cost you in the vicinity of 500GBP for a week, therefore, as you mention "affordable" look at the rental agencies the Brits use. If you're willing to travel for 20 - 25 mins into London on a direct line, frequent trains, you'll get a 2 bed house (as opposed to little studio flat) for around 700 GBP per month (as opposed to 500 GBP per week). Quite a saving.

The crucial point is the 2 MONTH rental period. A serviced apartment wouuld be just fine for this sort of short-term rental, though it will certainly be expensive. "Rental agencies the Brits use" will almost certainly not be interested. They typically let properties for 6 months minimum, sometimes 1 year.The paperwork and advertising costs are just too much trouble for shorter periods. I know, speaking from recent experience where the shortest rental we could get was 4 months.

To a certain extent I agree with above message that most short term rentals are for a minimum of 6 months. However, as the owner of three apartments in London (all rented out at present), I can safely say there are ways around this. <BR><BR>(1) Easiest: Many landlords do not use agents and therefore rent out for whatever period they want, look in the classified ads. An offer of slightly more than asking price will definitely clinch the deal. Many landlords don't use agents as the agency fees chew up one third of the rent. There are masses of independent landlords.<BR><BR>(2) If you find a place (agency or landlord), explain you only want 2 or whatever months. You may be asked to sign a 6 month lease, but organize a side agreement that they will waive the number of months not used. At the very worst you could sub-let for the remaining 4 months. <BR><BR>I suggest you pay slightly over the odds and have the tax, electric etc paid by landlord, then you're not bothered by other bills.<BR><BR>The rental market is pretty dire at present as everyone has been getting on the buy-to-let bandwagon. There's a surfeit of rental property and some landlords would grab your hand off if you made any reasonable offer.<BR><BR>When you think a services apartment for 2 months would cost a minimum of 4000 GBP whereas if you pay for a normal apartment at an excess rate (say it's 700 a month and you offer 900 x 2 (months) = 1800). A saving of around 2200GBP. <BR><BR>I admit it's not straight forward, but out of the centre of the city there definitely is property to be rented. <BR><BR>

New York Habitat (www.nyhabitat.com) are about to start listing apartments for short term (and long term) rent in London. These guys have been around for years servicing the New York and French markets, and are now moving into London. Keep an eye on them because they offer an excellent service in my opinion, although I have only used them in NYC.<BR>