With the World, not just the UK, in the grip of a financial crisis why did we think tourists would suddenly have endless supplies of cash and spend thousands a week to stay in an ordinary 2-up-2-down semi on the outskirts of Stratford?

The Olympics letting frenzy started some time ago and has seen tenants across London be booted out of their homes with Landlords hoping to make their fortune. Properties have been marketed for thousands a week and online sites have been springing up left, right and centre, promising to turn humble properties into money-making factories. Properties at the top end of the market in the best London postcodes have been put up for rent at rates that have been inflated by up to 300 percent for the Olympics. Indeed a seven bedroom house in Mayfair was asking £100,000 a week over the Olympic period.

Take-up of the properties though has been slow, horrendously slow. Unsurprisingly, our Olympic visitors aren’t in the main, millionaires and they simply don’t have the kind of money that landlords have been commanding.

So what has been the reality? And what does the future post-Olympic fever have in store? Based on conversations with letting agents, we have discovered that because take up of these ‘Olympic properties’ hasn’t materialised there is now a surplus stock of vacant property in London; against the norm, supply is outstripping demand.

As a consequence tenants looking to secure non-Olympic, long term lets are finally in the driving seat. With so many properties on the market they have the luxury of viewing more properties before making a final decision. Indeed, one East London Letting agent said “We’re now taking tenants to see 10 to 15 properties. Usually they would only see a few before making an offer.”

As well as having greater choice, tenants are putting in lower offers and with so many properties on the market landlords are finding it hard to say no.

It seems the landlords' greed has come right back round and slapped them on the face. At the moment at least, it’s a tenants' market out there.

PS. Had you managed to rent out your property as an Olympic let will you actually make cash in the long run? Check out our article "Olympic lets - a tortoise and hare story?" to find out!