Significant shift of tenants away from London

0:01 AM, 19th May 2021, About 4 years ago 1

Text Size

Private sector tenants are leaving London in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to new research, landlords renting properties in London were the only ones in the country to report that tenant demand had fallen more than it increased.

A survey of National Residential Landlords Association members, conducted by the research consultancy BVA-BDRC, found that 56% of landlords with properties in Central London saw tenant demand fall in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. Just 12% reported that demand had increased.

In Outer London, 45% of landlords reported demand has fallen, with 33% saying it had increased.

Tenant demand was strongest in Wales, with 57% of landlords renting property there having reported an increase over the same period, compared to just two per cent who registered a fall in demand. This was followed by landlords renting property in the South West, where 53% reported an increase in demand, compared to 13% who registered a fall.

Overall, across England and Wales, 31% of landlords reported tenant demand for properties had increased in the first quarter of 2021. This has recovered from the 14% of landlords who reported tenant demand having increased in the second quarter of 2020 in the aftermath of the first lockdown.

Nationally, whilst seven per cent of landlords had brought property in the first three months, the same proportion had sold property.

Central and Outer London continue to be the only regions where a significant proportion of landlords reported that rents are falling (46% and 27% respectively). Landlords with property in London were also more likely to have reduced rents across their own portfolio in 2020 (46% reduced them in Central London, 26% who reduced them in Outer London).

Across the country, 32% of landlords had experience of properties being void in the first quarter of 2021, with the average void period being 102 days.

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association said:

“The pandemic has seen a significant shift in where tenants want to rent, with the trend towards home working making inner cities, especially London, far less desirable.

“This poses significant challenges in determining where to invest to meet demand. Investors will no doubt be waiting for the market to settle, and the full roadmap out of lockdown to be realised, before making major decisions about where to invest. This will be particularly important as employers make decisions in the coming months about future working patterns.”

Share This Article

Comments

moneymanager

11:04 AM, 19th May 2021, About 4 years ago

Ben Beadle, Chief Executive of the National Residential Landlords Association said:

“This poses significant challenges in determining where to invest "

Well Ben, yesterday there was a piece about an illegal eviction in Sheffield, rent arrears apparently although the amount wasn't specified in the article I saw. The landlord was prosecuted by the proudly "zero tolerant" city Council and had to meet Court costs and fines of getting on for £4000 I think, so possibly not Sheffield.

Given both central and local government's stance toward landlords both in respect and irrespective of the pandemic what exactly is a landlord supposed to do, and when will YOU do something actually useful, like getting your face in the same articles putting the landlord's case or are you, god forbid, just a government mouthpiece?

Report Comment Reply

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

Continue with Facebook

Continue with Twitter

Username/Email Address

Password

Remember Me

Forgotten your password?

Don't have an account? Sign Up

“Account”	means an account required to access and/or use certain areas and features of Our Site;
“Cookie”	means a small text file placed on your computer or device by Our Site when you visit certain parts of Our Site and/or when you use certain features of Our Site. Details of the Cookies used by Our Site are set out in section 13, below;
“Cookie Law”	means the relevant parts of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003;
“personal data”	means any and all data that relates to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified from that data. In this case, it means personal data that you give to Us via Our Site. This definition shall, where applicable, incorporate the definitions provided in the EU Regulation 2016/679 – the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”); and
“We/Us/Our”	Means Property118 Ltd , a limited company registered in England under company number 10295964, whose registered address is 1st Floor, Woburn House, 84 St Benedicts Street, Norwich, NR2 4AB.

Name of Cookie	Purpose	Strictly Necessary
JSESSIONID	Used only to collect performance data, with any identifiable data obfuscated	No
__cfduid	This cookie is strictly necessary for Cloudflare's security features and cannot be turned off.	Yes

Name of Cookie	First / Third Party	Provider	Purpose
__utma, __utmb, __utmc, __utmt, __utmz	First	Google	Helps to understand how their visitors engage with our website
_fbp	First	Facebook	Helps to understand how their visitors engage with our website