I understand the rental market is an absolute mess right now, this has left me in a position where I have dealt with the majority of estate agencies across Canterbury. I have been on many, many viewings and filled out applications and have had communication with at least 10 real estate agencies in Canterbury. Regal Estates left me the most defeated during this entire process. Earning enough money and fitting their property requirements does not guarantee you will get anywhere near renting with them, the landlords choose based on who has the highest income, agents apparently cannot control this, fair enough. What agents can control, however, is their response time. It's perfectly acceptable to wait for a week or even a week and a half for a response on an application, but at one point I waited over three weeks to hear back from them, for another application I waited over two weeks, and so on, despite following up numerous times, and all so they can tell me the landlord did not choose my application. Absolutely no other agency has made me wait as long as Regal Estates, in fact most agencies have responded to me in under a week with very few exceptions, and even in those cases I got responses within one week. Landlords are busy they say, but can we please acknowledge that moving house in the current state of the country is stressful and exhausting as you compete for overpriced flats with everyone else looking to move? In this stressful time the last thing you need is waiting nearly a month - multiple times - to be told you are not chosen. Again, no other agency has made me wait longer than a week! While the staff is polite enough, they need to set a tighter deadline for their landlords instead of making people wait for weeks to hear disappointing news. I am not necessarily blaming the agents I have talked with at Regal, I think their business model simply prioritises landlords over tenants to the point where you are made to feel like nothing to them - reminder that landlords wouldn't exist without us so we deserve some respect! This has happened to me a few times and has happened to several of my friends who have attempted to rent with Regal Estates, no one that I personally know has successfully rented with them, for the most part due to wait times for responses. If you are wanting to know a decision on your rental application as soon as possible, pick another agency, either my friends and I have been terribly unlucky or it's standard practise to leave people hanging during a time of stress. If you are a landlord you might be lucky with them, you can take a month to look at applications and not even worry about it while the tenants wait for you!