{"id":1618,"date":"2014-03-07T10:57:16","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T10:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/?p=1618"},"modified":"2025-09-30T13:36:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T12:36:26","slug":"rental-market-update-march-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/property-rental-market\/rental-market-update-march-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Rental Market Update \u2013 March 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Central London<\/h2>\n

After a very busy start to the year, we then saw a slight slowdown caused by the unsual levels of wet weather. Now though we\u2019re seeing applicants returning to the market and demand for studios, one and two bed properties is high, with well priced properties being snapped up. The market is competitive though and both tenants and landlords are negotiating hard.
\n
\nEven smaller properties will stick if they\u2019re not priced correctly so we advise landlords to take note of market conditions and compromise if necessary \u2013 it\u2019s preferable to take a lower offer from a solid tenant rather than hold out for a higher offer and risk a longer void period.<\/p>\n

Around 95% of tenants are renewing their leases at the moment, keen to avoid the upheaval and costs of moving. Landlords recognise it is easier to keep a good tenant in place so are keen to reach an agreement with an existing tenant wherever possible.<\/p>\n

\"Imperial<\/a>
Imperial Wharf, SW6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New developments<\/a> in central London continue to be sought-after. Demand is particularly buoyant in Imperial Wharf where we have an office on site at the development, with apartments letting quickly and strong competition between tenants. Much of this demand is from corporate executives and we\u2019re seeing many applicants from City companies \u2013 finance, accountancy and law firms. The relocation market is very active with a high number of executives from the USA, Italy and Japan looking for rental properties at\u00a0Imperial Wharf<\/a> or Chelsea Creek. Around 80% of existing tenants are renewing their tenancies at the moment, a clear sign of the development\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n

City, Canary Wharf, Docklands and Greenwich<\/h2>\n

Rental demand is growing rapidly across the City and Docklands, with several applicants registering for every available property. Young professionals are the driving force behind this demand and unsurprisingly one bedroom apartments are in highest demand \u2013 we are very low on stock and need smaller property instructions to meet demand.<\/p>\n

The Square Mile is the most well-known financial district in the world so it\u2019s not surprising so many applicants (around half our tenants) are drawn here from overseas \u2013 most are here on secondment for a few years so they rent rather than buy while in London.<\/p>\n

\"New
New Capital Quay, SE10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

South East Asian investors continue to dominate the rental investment market. We have several clients who own multiple units across East London and who regularly expand their portfolios as new residential buildings come onstream. We\u2019ve recently seen an 9% increase in instructions from first-time investors new to the London property market which is encouraging.<\/p>\n

Demand just keeps on growing for rental apartments in Greenwich<\/a> too. We\u2019re now seeing around eight applicants for every property so are actively looking for new instructions. The area\u2019s open green spaces, in particular Greenwich Park, are a real draw, as too is the short commute to the City and central London which takes less than 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

North\/North West London<\/h2>\n

Rental demand in Highgate is buoyant, particularly for one, two and small three bedroom properties up to \u00a3600per week. With smaller properties letting so quickly, we\u2019re now seeing a shortage particularly nearer the village. Around 70% of tenants are renewing their tenancies \u2013 with budgets still under pressure, most prefer to avoid the inconvenience of moving and this has become more of a recent trend. Most feel they will be able to agree a smaller rent increase with their existing landlord plus with limited supply they don\u2019t want to risk a higher rental if they move elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The market for larger family size homes is a little slower with some landlords considering selling up, keen to take advantage of the rising sales market rather than updating their properties to help them let quicker. We\u2019re also seeing some existing tenants looking at buying a home thanks to the Government\u2019s Help to Buy scheme.<\/p>\n

\"Perrins
Perrins Lane, NW3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over at our Hampstead lettings office, we have also had a good start to the year. We have seen a large number of one and two bedroom properties come to the market in the NW3 postcode and have been letting them quickly. Landlords are increasingly aware that the rental market is very competitive so are conscious that they need to maintain and present their properties to a high standard and this is being reflected in the quality of homes coming to the market like this lovely family home we\u2019ve been instructed on in Perrins Lane which offers an enviable village location.<\/p>\n

Demand for larger properties to rent in Hampstead is more seasonal and tends to pick up about Easter time. This is when executives with higher budgets start looking in earnest through relocation agents, allowing plenty of time to move home before the start of the autumn school term. Having said that, we have let several larger family homes recently including a beautiful five bedroom house \u2013 a corporate let to an executive from a large, international company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Central London After a very busy start to the year, we then saw a slight slowdown caused by the unsual levels of wet weather. Now though we\u2019re seeing applicants returning to the market and demand for studios, one and two bed properties is high, with well priced properties being snapped up. The market is competitive … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Rental Market Update \u2013 March 2014”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[451,445],"tags":[70],"class_list":["post-1618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london-property-market","category-property-rental-market","tag-london-property-rental-market"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1618"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26997,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1618\/revisions\/26997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benhams.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}