Overseas investors entering the UK buy to let property market have expressed shock at what they perceive as relatively high letting agent fees.
Whilst UK landlords take fees of between 10 and 20 per cent for granted, foreign clients are apprehensive, instead expecting fees of just 1.5 per cent.
This disparity in expectations is largely due to a lack of understanding, with smaller costs of a few hundred pounds concealed amongst larger, more substational charges.
Managing director of The Buying Agents, Henry Sherwood, explained: ‘We have also heard of situations where landlords actually think agents are inventing jobs during quiet periods to increase their revenue. In many cases the landlord does not even know it is happening, they simply think they have ‘bought a dud’ or are abroad so have no way of checking.’
The rise of many online letting and management agencies with lower cost business models is now beginning to cut into the market share of traditional letting agencies.