London is back - big rise in portal searches for renting in capital

Rightmove says falling rents in central London have led to a surge in interest from prospective tenants.

Rightmove has analysed over 23 million London searches, and says enquiries for rental homes in areas of Zones 1 and 2 have jumped significantly.

Nine Elms in Wandsworth has seen the biggest annual rise in rental searches in the capital, up 126 per cent, with average asking rents in the area now at £2,802 per calendar month, down 15 per cent on a year ago.

Next up is another Wandsworth location – Battersea – which has also seen rental searches more than double over the past 12 months (up 111 per cent), followed by Clapham Common (up 109 per cent).

The portal believes this highlights a growing trend of people wanting to move back to urban hubs.

All of Rightmove’s top 10 latest rental hotspots are within Zones 1 and 2 - a big contrast to last August when renters searching in the capital were home-hunting in the outer zones.

Chessington topped the list in August, and all but two of the top 10 hotspots were located in Zone 3 and beyond as Rightmove’s data last summer reflected people wanting to move to quieter areas with transport links as office-based working and rail commutes became less frequent.

However, Rightmove insists the tide appears to be turning.

For example, last August Canary Wharf ranked 203rd in terms of annual growth in rental searches but the area has now moved up the rankings to eighth place.

Rightmove’s director of property data Tim Bannister says: “With the prospect of some kind of normality potentially on the horizon, it appears that the capital’s renters are now looking to return to Inner London, and making the move now to take advantage of the lower rents. Our list of London’s top rental hotspots is dominated by locations in Zones 1 and 2 and that represents a significant shift in search behaviour.”