Huge rent rises in London should be no surprise, says market monitor

Greater London rents have risen an average of four per cent in the past year - but some boroughs performing above-average have seen rent increases up to an extraordinary 14 per cent.

Data from market monitoring website Home says Wandsworth in the south of the capital has seen the largest rise - just over 14 per cent - with Hackney, Haringey, Hammersmith and Fulham, Southwark and Islington also seeing rent increases of 10 per cent or more.

Other above-average performers were Sutton, Greenwich, Kingston upon Thames, Greenwich, Camden, Lewisham, Newham, Hounslow, Brent and Richmond upon Thames, illustrating just how widespread the rent rises have been.

The Home monitor, looking at the lettings market over the past month, says: “London hasn’t seen rent rises like this for a long time, but to the attentive market observer these huge hikes should come as no surprise. Supply has been falling away for over two years while demand has remained relatively high. Indeed, the current situation was clearly inevitable, brought on by insanely low interest rates and over-zealous measures by the government to ‘level the playing field.’”

It goes on to say that these rises come after a long term stagnation, and in some cases a slump, in buy to let returns in London. 

“At the height of the buy to let boom in London, rents were driven down by 9.7 per cent between October 2015 and January 2017 by a flood of property to let” it says.