London areas with most rentals revealed
The number of homes available to rent in the capital last month was down 44 per cent on 2021, and was 25 per cent below levels seen before the pandemic. With demand still high, tenants are outnumbering available properties by three to one, with Rightmove calling it “the most competitive rental market ever recorded”.
New data compiled by TwentyCi for Homes & Property shows that there are currently 44,646 rentals available across the capital. Westminster has the most homes currently available to rent with 6,271 listed. It is followed by Tower Hamlets, where there are 3,568, and Kensington and Chelsea with 3,452.
Laura Stronghill, senior head of lettings at Hamptons’ Canary Wharf office, said that in Tower Hamlets the high figures can be explained by the large number of build-to-rent developments and new builds in the area — such as Canary Wharf Group’s Vertus and the Landmark Pinnacle residential tower.
However, higher stock levels do not necessarily mean lower prices or a less competitive market.
“Despite there being an apparent good level of stock, we still find that demand is outstripping supply and multi-offers are coming through on most properties,” said Ms Stronghill.
In Westminster, James Benson, co-founder of James of Westminster, said flats were “flying out the door” before photographs have been taken. He said the higher availability in the borough was due to rents being “prohibitively high” for people to consider if they might only be working in London three days a week.
City of London was the borough with the lowest numbers of available properties, with only 220 homes currently on the lettings market. Havering, Bexley and Sutton also had low levels of available rental stock.