Help me become a Londoner!

[Philip Potter]

2009/11/19 Dermot <paikkos at googlemail.com>:
> 2009/11/19 Gianni Ceccarelli <dakkar at thenautilus.net>:
>> Hi all!
>
>> Some questions I have:
>>
>> - can anyone recommend some agencies (or other methods) to search for
>>  the apartment?
>
> This site has lots of private property rental so there's no agency fees
> http://www.gumtree.com/london/2548_1.html
>
> This site might give you some initial options:
> http://www.findaproperty.com/listcounties.aspx?edid=00&salerent=1&countyid=11

My experience of findaproperty is that it's good for determining what
the market is like in terms of what you are likely to get for your
money, but by the time anything appears on the website it's gone
already. If you're going the estate agent route, it's easier to phone
them direct because then they can tell you what they actually
currently have going.

Gumtree is very variable in quality: there's some amazing finds and
there's some real dives; but with Google Street View it's easier to
check an area out than it ever has been before.

Also, London is just too big to sift through all the opportunities on
offer; you should restrict your search somehow. I think mapumental is
a great tool for doing just that but it's currently only in beta so
you'll need to sign up and hope they will send you an invite:
http://mapumental.channel4.com/signup
they unfortunately only have house price data, not housing rents, but
I think it's a reasonable predictor.

In any case, where you want to live will be partly influenced by where
you want to work and partly by rents in different areas. I think South
London is great because it's easy to find somewhere reasonably priced
yet close to everything in the centre.

Phil