A shortage of stock means good property is letting in a matter of hours, rather than days.

Gillian Powell from Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward in Balham is particularly short of one-bedroom flats, which let the quickest, and the lack of stock has brought rents up to where they were before the credit crunch.

“Landlords are making an effort to present their property in a clean and good condition,” she says. “It is definitely a landlords’ market now, with both tenants and landlords being picky on both sides.” Another trend is families hunting for bigger houses earlier in the year. “We are getting relocation agents looking for homes for corporate tenants too.”

Advice she would pass on to landlords is to focus strongly on kitchens and bathrooms, and on items such as power showers and good wooden flooring, rather than cheap laminates.

“If you spend a bit more, then the tenant will take better care of the place. Up-to-the-minute door handles and other finishing touches can make all the difference,” Powell adds.

The property shortage is easing slightly, according to Virginia Skilbeck at Douglas & Gordon. There were 159 rental properties on her books in April, compared with 363 a year ago.

“The story of the summer will be landlords putting homes up to let that they mistakenly thought they’d get top dollar for in the sales market,” she believes.

Skilbeck finds rents are very bullish with so little on the current market, and tenants will need to be more realistic when it comes time to negotiate when they renew contracts. “They benefited when rents dropped, but now mind when they’re in the landlords’ favour,” she points out.

With proposed rises in capital gains tax, Skilbeck thinks “many buy-to-let landlords will hang onto their property with the view to their children living there eventually.”