London prime rental market ‘collapses’ as available lets fall sharply
Figures from LonRes show that rents are shooting up as tenants compete for a dwindling number of properties.
The rental market in prime London areas has collapsed as available stock plummeted, new figures revealed.
Analysis by capital data firm LonRes showed that the number of new lets is nearly 50% lower than before the Covid pandemic.
As a result, demand for each available rental property has shot up, and let times have almost halved from 87 to just 44 days in the last year, according to the LonRes statistics.
Anthony Payne, managing director of LonRes, (pictured) said: “As we enter the half-way mark in the year, demand for rental homes in Prime London has well and truly bounced back, and it’s now a lack of stock that is the big challenge facing would-be tenants.
“This situation has led to a complete reversal in the state of the Prime London rental market from last year. In 2021, landlords struggled to let their properties, which led to rents falling, the average time to let rising, and growing discounts to asking rents. This year, the opposite is true.”
LonRes said that given the lack of homes available, tenants were now renewing existing agreements at higher rents, while many of those properties that do become available are being snapped up before they hit the listing websites.
Longer-term tenancies
For those tenants that do manage to get a new tenancy, some are being forced to agree to much longer-term tenancies, it said.
The average time to let a property with a weekly rent of £1,000 or above has fallen from 108 days in June 2021 to just 62 days in June 2022. However, the time to let a property with a weekly rent under £500 has fallen from 81 days last year to a low of 34 days this year.
Properties in ‘Prime Fringe’ let more quickly than those in Prime Central London (36 days and 53 days respectively). Flats (42 days) let more quickly than houses (57 days), although this trend was reversed during the middle of last year when houses (82 days) were letting more quickly than flats (88 days), LonRes said.
The firm warned that with international students and other residents returning to the capital in the autumn, rents may rise even further.
Property sale prices rose more than 7% over the last year, the LonRes research showed.
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The Govt intend to eradicate the PRS & are not concerned with the cost to tenants. The preferred model is Corporate Tory party sponsors, BTR.
Govt also feather the pockets of so-called Social Housing ( most Private companies, allegedly Not For profit ) by allowing them to charge Affordable Rents [sic] that are 30% above LHA rate that is available to PRS tenants.
It should be a National tax-payers outcry. !
Who could possibly have predicted that the constant attacks on landlords would have resulted in fewer properties being available? Certainly not our politicians.
Well said David.