A London-focussed online agency boss has taken his second swipe at traditional lettings agencies.

Last month Richard Jenkins, chief executive of the agency Hello Neighbour, set the cat amongst the pigeons with a call for landlords to be allowed to break their contracts with agents. 

He also wrote to Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook, claiming that letting agents routinely charge landlords up to 20% of the annual rent, with fees that often escalate as rents increase.

Now he has made another bid to grab headlines with a survey which he has sent to journalists. In it he says the survey has been sent to 6,000 landlords – although no details are given as to how many replied or whether the survey was conducted by an independent company. 

The agency has summarised the findings by saying “47% [of landlords] don’t use high street agents; 77% would reduce rents, improve their property or expand their portfolio if unfair terms (like current-day renewal fees) were banned; only 17% fully understand the Renters Rights Bill.”

The agency has also given a snapshot of how it sees the London lettings sector.

It claims London rents in July 2025 are down 5.0% compared to July 2024 and are 0.7% higher than in July 2023. It adds that rents have been relatively stable in recent months, with a month-on-month increase of 0.3%, and a 0.2% decrease compared to the previous three-month period.

The majority of landlords continue to price properties within market rates.

Tenant demand increased in July compared to June, and remains consistent with July 2024 levels, but is nearly half of what was observed in July 2023.

The gap in demand between outer and inner London has remained narrow over the past three months, with an average of 94 viewing requests per property in outer London, compared to 91 in inner London. Redbridge was the most popular area again over the last three months, receiving 357 viewing requests, followed closely by Waltham Forest with 322 requests.