Surrey is one of the hottest spots for residential corporate lettings in the country; probably only second to London. One of the main reasons is that Surrey hosts a number of international blue-chip companies. Over the years, many multi-national companies have opened up offices and headquarters in Surrey in order to take advantage of its brilliant location, which is very close to London, major motorways as well as the key airports.
Some of Surrey's technology giants include Philips, Canon, and Toshiba. A number of pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer and Sanofi are also based in the area well. Other world-famous companies that have their national or European headquarters in Surrey include Superdrug, Unilever and Nestle.
In addition to some of the London based companies, these Surrey multi-nationals tend to have a large number of employees constantly moving into Surrey and the surrounding areas for medium or long-term assignments that come with generous relocation packages. Due to this demand, the corporate lettings has become a very popular service amongst the Surrey agents over the last couple of decades.
What services do Corporate Lettings include?
As part of the corporate lettings service, different estate agents provide different sets of services depending on
- the size of their rental departments,
- the requirements of their customers,
- the geographic area they cover.
- assistance with local or international employee relocation,
- new hire (or graduate) housing and accommodation,
- private home search,
- short term lettings.
Finding the right estate (or letting) agency to assist your residential corporate lettings is a very important decision. Not getting it right can cost you a lot of money, and it can potentially cause a lot of inconvenience to your employees. Here are 3 key steps you should consider in your selection:
- First of all, you should do your homework in order to create a short list of estate or letting agents you could work with. It is always good to work with agencies that have professional memberships to National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) or the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA). These organisations enforce a strict code of practice with their members.
- Secondly, you must check the references for these agencies. Understand their financial stability, their corporate lettings customers as well as their property portfolio. Also ask for personal recommendations as well. Keep in mind that if the agency has not gone the extra mile for their customers, they are not very likely to be recommended.
- Lastly, compare the fees and commissions for each of the agency as they sometimes change significantly.
