Market Madness? £7,000 pcm unit let in hours and 78 ...

If evidence was needed that the rental market is booming right now, here’s the proof - a property with an asking rent of £7,000 a month has let in just one day.

And the same company has seen 78 viewings on an HMO unit listed to let.

David Alexander - joint chief executive of Scottish lettings firm DJ Alexander - says activity in the rental market generally has increased enormously in recent weeks and his firm has been experiencing record demand above pre-pandemic levels.

The two examples he quotes are in Edinburgh but he says the whole market is flying.

“We are seeing unprecedented demand in the private rented sector. With the opening up of the economy over the last few months activity was already building steadily but in the last few weeks it has now increased substantially.”

“Letting a £7,000 per month property in just one day is unusual at the best of times but this is not, by any means, an isolated incident at the moment.

“Properties are flying off the market in a matter of days following listing. We are finding enormous pent-up demand from tenants who are acting immediately a property is listed.

“That the HMO we had on our books had 78 viewings is a further sign that the market has suddenly exploded into life.”

“Just three months ago there were as many as 1,900 properties available in Edinburgh alone and that figure has now dropped to just over 600 rentals at the moment.

“Edinburgh is undoubtedly the centre of extremely high levels of demand at present, but we are seeing increased activity in the private rental market across Scotland.”

“The wider concern is that demand may now be outstripping supply. This is likely to lead to a shortage of available properties on the market and rising rental prices in the short to medium term.

“I believe that this situation will persist in the coming months particularly if we start to have an inflow of people back into cities and towns to work, and the potential return of EU citizens to work in the hospitality and retail sectors.

“However, this level of activity is a clear and welcome sign that the market and the wider economy are returning to normal.”

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