Prime London rents still soaring as stock shortage drives market

Rents are still rising rapidly across Prime London, hitting a new record high, as the shortage of property available to rent drives competition among renters looking for a home.

That’s the view from property data firm LonRes, which has looked at price per square foot across all parts of prime London and has discovered that the average rent in all three areas – Prime Central, Prime Inner, and Prime Fringe - have surpassed their pre-pandemic peaks and are now well above previous levels.

Average rents in Prime Inner London are now 15 per cent higher than their pre-pandemic level while those in Prime Fringe London are nine per cent higher.  The annual growth in rents has slowed in recent months but it is still firmly in double digits at an average of 18.9 per cent across Prime London.  

There is relatively little difference between sub-markets, with annual growth of 16.4 per cent in Prime Fringe and 20.5 per cent in Prime Inner London.

The rental growth figures are being driven by continued strong demand for rental homes amidst a severe shortage of property available to rent.  

A lack of stock available to rent is still limiting the number of new lets.  New lets in October were 45.7 per cent lower than last year and 52.2 per cent lower than the average for 2017-19.  

The shortage of homes available to rent looks set to put further upward pressure on rents unless there is a dramatic increase in new listings.

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