Lettings market picking up in some residential projects in London

The lettings market in the UK is picking up with one real estate agency reporting the return to competitive bidding on some residential developments to rent in London. <br><br> Rental prices being achieved on some projects are reaching 5% to 10% higher than anticipated, according to real estate fir

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Published - Apr 25, 2018 5:11 AM

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The lettings market in the UK is picking up with one real estate agency reporting the return to competitive bidding on some residential developments to rent in London.

Rental prices being achieved on some projects are reaching 5% to 10% higher than anticipated, according to real estate firm JLL which has seen a 40% increase in offers made.

The firm has also seen a 57% increase in applicants registering in March 2018 for rental homes compared with the previous month. .

According to Lucy Morton, head of residential agency at JLL, it has been an exceptionally busy few months for the lettings teams across all agency offices. ‘Well-presented properties have let with fewer voids than in recent years,’ she said.

She explained that the quality of rental stock has increased considerably, with renting no longer considered the second option but the preferred option for many and some of this may be due to ‘punitive’ changes to stamp duty which have shaped how people are interacting with the property market, most notably at the higher end.

‘Once, if you were looking to live in London for two to three years you would automatically look to buy, but now with the cost of stamp duty, along with more stable price growth, you are likely to only break even in this time given the cost of buying a home,’ said Morton.

‘Renting has become more desirable than ever because in many cases, you’re not just renting a home but embedding yourself into a lifestyle,’ she added. She pointed out that many new schemes, including, Rathbone Square, Uncle Elephant and Castle, Two Fifty One and 190 The Strand, have all proven exceptionally popular as they provide amenities such as gyms, residents lounges, private dining spaces and even cinemas, giving tenants more options than ever.

She also explained that an unspoken perk of renting is the ability to ‘right size’, which is an exclusive benefit of renting as opposed to buying. ‘Tenants have more flexibility around where and the type of property they rent, so if the it doesn’t fit you can move easily, allowing young professionals to upsize when they become a young family, or families to downsize when the children leave the nest,’ she said.

‘We have witnessed this trend in many of our offices, for example in Stratford, we found a couple their first home together but three years on, they have an addition to the family so have moved from a one to a two bed,’ she added.