LATEST LANDLORD NEWS

Live
Text
min read

Covid's long shadow over rental market 'finally fading'

lettings rents

The Covid years’ extreme effect on the capital’s lettings market appears to be significantly easing – although demand remains abnormally high.

Data from London agent Foxtons found that the number of new instructions in January was 25% higher than the previous year, with rental prices down by 1% from the same period in 2023, due to increasing supply.

Increase

It reports a 93% month-on-month increase in applicant demand from December to January. While this was 10% lower than in January 2023, compared with January 2019 – the last year of a more traditional market – applicant demand was up 71% last month.

Foxtons says the year-on-year fall of 26% in new renters per new instruction indicates a shift towards a more realistic lettings market, characterised by higher supply levels and less inflated demand. However, applicants per new instructions have increased by 56% from January 2019.

Sarah Tonkinson (pictured), MD of institutional PRS and build to rent, says: “We are not expecting massive price growth across London’s lettings market this year, around 0 and 2%. The market is still competitive…so while there is opportunity, landlords may need to take a more active approach to pricing and work with agents to place tenants and minimise void periods.”

Gareth Atkins, MD of lettings, adds: “As forecasted, the start of 2024 has seen a more normalised lettings market, and as new properties come to the market, it will be important for landlords to keep track of how that affects their asset.”

Tags:

Comments

More from author

Leave a comment