Diary of an estate agent
MONDAY
I think I've had a better weekend than the tenant who called me this morning to say he'd popped out for a pint of milk on Sunday afternoon and returned to find his two bedroom apartment in Long Acre on fire. He has checked into The Covent Garden Hotel and we need to rehouse him urgently. No one was injured but the flat has extensive smoke damage and will need a complete overhaul. Happily it is insured and the owners have taken the news quite well. Meanwhile a new temp started today on reception, a man, which is quite unusual. He looked vaguely familiar and it turns out he is a resting actor who recently appeared in The Bill. We're fairly used to famous faces around here, although most of them are in the theatre or opera, rather than television. However, we did let a flat to Carol Vorderman for a while.
TUESDAY
Off to see an unusual apartment in Neal Street, which I've always been keen to have a look around. It's a loft space above Carluccio's restaurant in what used to be an old fruit warehouse. The lifting mechanism is still at the front and it's listed. The present tenant has been there for years but is leaving soon, so the landlord wants advice on how best to refurbish it to get the highest possible rent. A Philippe Starck bathroom, trendy kitchen and sanded floorboards should all help it achieve about £1,250 a week.
Got back to a phone call from a tenant who is a furniture designer. Vogue wants to do a photo shoot of his furniture but his flat isn't big enough to show it off so he wanted to borrow a much larger apartment for half a day. Luckily we were able to oblige.
WEDNESDAY
An early appointment to meet a prospective tenant at a flat in Soho that I'd first seen a few months ago, all white walls and wood floors, to be let at £700 a week. She's a very nice woman, but not exactly streetwise. As I opened the reception room door and stood back to allow her to walk in ahead of me, I realised - too late - that all was not as I remembered. In the middle of the room was a king- size bed, no other furniture, and surrounding it were studio lights and cameras. Fortunately there was no one in and my applicant didn't appear to twig as to what had been going on, so I was able to whisk her around the rest of the flat without any embarrassing questions. She rang later to say she had decided Soho was too busy and was going to look in Fulham instead, so perhaps she'd realised more than she gave away.
THURSDAY
Ghostly goings on in Covent Garden. We had been asked to find a tenant for a big, gloomy, four-bedroom apartment in a period building on Long Acre, to be let at £400 a week. It's unfurnished, old and rambles around with doors leading off a long corridor. It's also quite dark. Last week, a colleague went to inspect it and thought it felt a bit eerie, so decided not to hang around. But when she got to the front door, it wouldn't open. Just as she began to panic, it suddenly clicked open very smoothly. She swore she was never going back, but this morning had to take an applicant who walked in, announced "I don't like the feel of this place" and promptly left. Now she's convinced it's creepy.
FRIDAY
So much for superstition. I took a mature male solicitor who needed a weekday London base round the "haunted" flat and he announced it was perfect. Very comfortable, he said, lovely atmosphere. He decided he would be very happy there. There is good news too for the tenant whose flat caught fire: we've found him another apartment nearby and he's thrilled he can move in in time for the weekend.
Antony Crovella is head of Lettings at EA Shaw in Covent Garden (020 7240 2255).
