At last! London rental market shows strong signs of recovery

After months in the doldrums thanks to tenants moving away and an excess of supply, London’s rental sector is recovering.

The Home website, which monitors the lettings market, says that while average rents are still down overall on a year ago, most boroughs show significant rises over the last three months. 

The greatest rises in asking rents over the last quarter were in the City (+30.1 per cent), Wandsworth (+9.7 per cent) and Westminster (+7.5 per cent).

The recovery is driven by returning demand as the capital slowly returns from the pandemic, says Home.

A marked scarcity of rental properties persists in all other English regions, Scotland and Wales, thereby driving up rents. 

Annual rent rises are in double digits in five of the nine English regions, according to the site.

The largest annualised average rent hikes are in the East of England (+11.1 per cent) and the South West (+16.1 per cent).

Home says: “Confidence is clearly returning to the rental market and over the coming months this will spill over into the sales market, which is still plagued by a glut of unsold stock. 

“Given the astonishing speed in the recovery in rents (and therefore yields), we expect buyer interest to increase significantly. Moreover, given that Greater London home prices have gone nowhere over the last five years, there’s plenty of room for growth.”

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