However, once in the property tennants tend to stay longer than they had originally planned, with the average initial contract being 10 months but the average length of stay being 16 months.
Adrian Turner, chief executive of ARLA, said: "This knocks on the head once and for all the generally held view that tennancies only last for six months in the private rented sector.
"The survey showed that in the South-East, it takes an average of six viewings before a letting is agreed. This goes up by half as much again in prime central London, where an average of nine viewings are needed. This is nearly double the figure for the rest of the country outside the South-East, where only 4.6 viewings are needed."
