Anita (Managing director at Benham and Reeves)

The London housing market is really stepping up a gear as we enter the busy summer months. Buyers are showing increasing confidence now that mortgage rates have stabilised and gloomy economic forecasts have thankfully failed to materialise. So the outlook is positive.

There’s positive news for the UK economy and the London housing market. In January, the UK economy defied gloomy predictions and grew at the higher than expected rate of 0.3%.

In an economic climate where homeowners are thinking of ways to lessen the load of rising costs, renting out a property is now a serious option. This trend has the welcome effect of increasing rental stock and loosening up the market; no one wants a hothouse situation. However, this small stock gain follows a period …

Continue reading “London rental stock levels gradually pick up through February”

A steadier economic climate leads us to believe that predictions of a housing crash coupled with double digit-inflation are way off the mark. That being said, the economic laws of supply and demand continue to dictate the direction of the London rentals market.

Throughout 2022, we have seen phenomenal rental demand across London – with enquiry levels continuing to climb, even in December which is usually a little quieter. We have simply never experienced a year like it in terms of the number of professional applicants looking for a rental property in the Capital. In fact, we’ve seen the number of enquiries from applicants increase by 39% in 2022, compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

Demand for rental properties in London has remained at an all-time high over the last few weeks, intensified by seasonal market pressures; international students have moved to the Capital for the start of the autumn term, new graduates are moving here to start their careers and corporate relocations are picking up dramatically, now that Covid restrictions are over.

At the moment, more people want to live in London than there is available property and we are slap bang in the middle of a red-hot rental market where demand for rental properties is the highest we have EVER seen and this is leading to rents increasing across the board. There are many driving factors …

Continue reading “London rental market hits record rents amid property shortage”

Demand created by the return of professionals and international students to London is adding to the growing shortage of available properties to rent in the city and the market remains extremely challenging.

It’s peak summer season for the London rental market and demand continues to grow, adding to the severe shortage of rental properties in the Capital. Across our 19 London lettings branches, we are desperately short of stock, as many apartments are letting within a couple of hours and in some cases just minutes. Often we are letting a new rental property as soon as it goes onto our website, often without a physical viewing.

The London rental market is showing no signs of cooling down. In fact, demand for rental accommodation in the Capital remains at an all-time high, far outstripping the supply of properties available.

It’s very much ‘business as usual’ in London now, the city is buzzing with life and professionals are returning to the office, so the demand for good rental properties is growing still further.  As a result, the shortage of rental properties in London is continuing and many of our 19 London lettings branches now have very few properties available to rent, so serious is the lack of supply.

The growing number of Londoners returning to the Capital after the pandemic is continuing to exacerbate the shortage of rental properties in London.  Londoners who moved away from London during the lockdowns, have been steadily making a return to the office, so demand for well-presented homes to rent in popular locations is at an all-time …

Continue reading “A return to London life creates huge shortages of rental properties in London”