Strutt and Parker says the low level growth in the lettings market seen in prime central London in 2019 is being undermined by a major supply glut since the pandemic began.
This is due to the collapse of the short-term lets market in the capital, which the agency warns is unlikely to recover fully this year.
Lettings transaction levels are also significantly down, it warns.
In Q2 2020, rental transactions equated to just 32 per cent of Q2 2019 transaction levels.
“This indicates that there is pent up demand and now that people are able to move into rental properties again, it is expected that transactions will start to recover, albeit at a slow rate” says the agency’s latest market snapshot.
Renewals are happening at lower rates and some tenants may need to negotiate rent reductions due to job uncertainty, the agency warns.
The combined effect of all this, the agency warns, is that rents will fall by between two and 10 per cent this year.
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Not will, has!
Rents have NOT fallen in my area.
Lyndon My rents have increased as well - The article is ref the London area. Creaming it for years from hidden Chinese/Russian money resulting in increased sales figures as well as increased rents. Some of these LA's then went on to take the complete pi** e.g Foxtons and the result affected the rest of the country 'No tenant fees' & now Central London agents are whinging cos they not wetting their beak as before
London is not the UK and articles like this tend to make out that rents are falling across the UK.
Is anyone surprised that London rents are falling. People are working from home so they do not need to live near the office. As another article on another site claims, people are searching more for properties away from cities. I used to live in London when I was young and loved it. Now, you couldn't pay me enought to live or work in London.
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