Looking for a flat in london, hate estate agents

October 17, 2005 7:01 AM

I'm looking for places (papers/websites) where people advertise flats to let direct to tenants, in London.

I'm looking for a flat to rent in London. My experience of estate agents is that they are a waste of time and money - I've got a few simple criteria, and they seem incapable of filtering based upon these. http://www.london-flat-rental.co.uk/
is the sort of thing I'm looking for, but it doesn't seem that well subscribed. Specific area = Tooting/Balham/Clapham/Stockwell.

posted by handee to home & garden (12 comments total)

Craigslist?
posted by autojack at 7:04 AM on October 17, 2005

Loot and www.professionalaccommodation.com
posted by jwhittlestone at 7:05 AM on October 17, 2005

In general most people will advertise in Loot... Get the paper at o'crack'sparrows and start 'phoning...
posted by benzo8 at 7:06 AM on October 17, 2005

For non-agent renting, I've successfully used Loot and Gumtree.

Many people do only let through agents, and I found that the best site for agent searching was PrimeLocation.

(I found Craigslist to be useless, unless you're looking for things from US expats.)
posted by quiet at 7:13 AM on October 17, 2005

One thing worse than estate agents in the UK: Landlords!

I wouldn't consider renting without professional management (and independent check-in clerks!), in the UK. That usually means estate agents, sadly.
posted by Goofyy at 7:23 AM on October 17, 2005

www.moveflat.com

It's free, and becoming extremely popular.
posted by ajp at 9:47 AM on October 17, 2005

Loot and Gumtree are your friends.

Estate Agents are bastards, generally, whereas not all Landlords are. In my experience.

The flat I'm living in now.. I was shown it by an agent, but they couldn't agree a price. I contacted the landlord direct, by searching out a contact for them, and we hit a deal, bypassing the evil agents. Don't be afraid to fight dirty is my advice- you'll need to!
Good luck. Flat hunting in London is awful.
posted by ascullion at 11:00 AM on October 17, 2005

I've heard many success stories from Moveflat.com.
posted by cushie at 11:01 AM on October 17, 2005

I've had the opposite experience from Goofyy - the one flat we rented through an agent was an awful experience, and we ended up sueing to get the deposit back. The private landlords we went through (one through the Evening Standard's ads, one found through friends of friends) have been great, apart from the first landlord selling the beautiful flat out from under our arses, but that was just business.
posted by altolinguistic at 11:51 AM on October 17, 2005

Loot
posted by Lanark at 12:14 PM on October 17, 2005

Moveflat.com is okay but it's far more use to people looking for flat shares. Its self-contained list is pretty slim compared to Loot. Give both of these a go, but based on personal experience I'd advise you to persevere with estate agents too. Yep, they're all a waste of space and will screw you for spare change if given half a chance, but more properties come through them than not. Good luck.
posted by londonmark at 1:30 AM on October 18, 2005

I eventually found a place through gumtree, but looked at some good stuff through moveflat.
posted by handee at 7:56 AM on January 10, 2006