International News

After a year of being shunned amid lockdowns and coronavirus, the tide is finally turning for London as the capital rental market springs back to life.

According to data from the Benham and Reeves lettings agency, the London rental market is making a swift return to form, with renters looking to return to urban life.

During the start of the year, rents of homes in London plunged to their lowest, whilst those of outside London soared. But research shows a different story now.

In January of last year, the average London rent was £1,627 per month but during the height of the pandemic, this plunged by 4.4% to £1,556 in December.

However, the latest data for July shows that London rental values have bounced back, up 2.4% in the last month alone, and are now 5.7% higher than their December 2020 low.

This is a clear indicator that demand is returning to the capital’s rental market.

In Q4 of 2019, before the pandemic hit, there were 47,000 rental properties listed to rent across London. But as demand fell and tenants vacated the capital during the pandemic, this climbed to over 100,000 rental properties by Q3 of 2020 and remained above this landmark threshold for three consecutive quarters.

However, the latest analysis by Benham and Reeves shows that to date, this figure has fallen to 64,206 and while it is yet to reduce to pre-pandemic levels, it provides another strong indicator that the London rental market is bouncing back and tenants are returning to the capital.

Dwindling demand due to a combination of working from home guidelines and travel restrictions preventing foreign interest, were the other main reasons why London’s rental market hit rock bottom.

"We saw virtually no demand from overseas students last year which meant this stock further flooded a market that was already saturated due to a lack of interest from working professionals.

Although widespread lockdown restrictions remained in place during the start of this year, the reversal of the working from home trend and the return of foreign student demand, in particular, are currently driving a London rental resurgence during the second and third quarters.”

Retrieved from： https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/londons-rental-market-springs-back-24794908 （ 19 AUG 2021） 

The information provided on this website is for reference only. C21 International shall not be liable for any errors, omissions, misstatements or misrepresentations (express or implied), concerning any Information, and shall not have or accept any liability, obligation, or responsibility whatsoever for any loss, destruction or damage (including without limitation consequential loss, destruction or damage) howsoever arising from or in respect of using, misusing, inability to use, or relying on the Information.