Rents rocket in South London (Heat Map)

Despite all the headlines about prime central London’s house price growth and the regeneration of east London, rents have risen fastest in south London over the past three months according to Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings’ latest research. Rents in Greenwich have increased by an astonishing 27.16% over the last quarter while in nearby Bermondsey, Southwark and the South Bank, rents increased by 12.68%, far outpacing almost every other part of London.

In fact, vast swathes of north London including family favourites Muswell Hill and Archway saw no increases at all and the N7 area of Islington actually saw rents fall. Perhaps surprisingly, a similar picture emerged in prime central London with Westminster the only other area where rents have fallen while in Kensington, rents increased by less than one per cent. Only Knightsbridge performed strongly with increases of just shy of eight per cent.

A mixed picture emerged in the trendier bits of east London with Shoreditch showing no growth at all. Victoria Park, Bow and Canary Wharf showed only modest increases despite a number of sought after developments being built in these areas. London Fields, which has historically had a strong rental market, continued to perform well, though, with increases of over six per cent.

Investors in search of up and coming areas would have performed best in the two other areas of central London tipped for growth: Bayswater (6.2% rental increases) and the King’s Cross area (8.2% rental increases).

“Greenwich’s growth isn’t a huge surprise to us,” remarks Marc von Grundherr, director of Benham & Reeves Residential Lettings, “It is a beautiful part of London with great transport links to the City and Canary Wharf. Until recently, it has mainly been viewed as a part of London that is great for families but with a number of new developments being built around the Greenwich Peninsula area, younger people are now flocking to
the area.”
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