THE SCRAMBLE for super-prime lets With a shortage of properties available, expect a battle in the ‘crazy’ rental market this spring, writes Zoe Dare Hall
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f you have £10,000 or more a week to spend on renting a London property, you might expect to see the red carpet rolled out and be invited to take your pick. But as 2022 heads into spring, it turns out that’s not so. Due to the chronic shortage of lettings stock on the market, renters – some of whom are wielding budgets of up to £50,000 a week – are having to learn to be less picky. James Somers, director of lettings at UK Sotheby’s International Realty, has several clients for whom £2m a year seems a reasonable amount to pay a landlord, “but they are struggling to find something that meets their requirements. They started their searches in Mayfair but have had to extend their search area to find something suitable.” Those with slightly lower budgets are hitting similar brick walls. After a glut of stock and little demand in 2020, “the
imbalance between tenants and property supply has completely tipped upside down,” comments Matthew Huybrechts, director of Dexters Mayfair. As a result, expect “a scramble for stock this spring”, says Tom Bill, Knight Frank’s head of UK residential research, as London’s rival rental factions battle it out for the paltry number of new releases on the market. Students dominate the £500-£1,000 a week band, says Chris Morris, Cluttons head of lettings – particularly international students, whose fondness for Kensington & Chelsea has helped bump up rental prices by 10-15 per cent from pre-pandemic levels. “The lettings market is ridiculously crazy right now,” says Morris. Landlords love an international student too. “To pass referencing, they have to pay rent in advance,” explains Somers, who is trying to find a two/three-bed flat in Belgravia for up to £20,000 a month for
10-15%
INCREASE IN RENTAL PRICES IN CHELSEA AND KENSINGTON
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an American couple’s daughter, but they keep losing out on properties going to best and final bids. “The most recent apartment she liked received five offers on the day it launched and went for 15 per cent over the asking price, with rent paid a full year in advance,” says Somers. Others are returning from a pandemic move to the country and seeking to rent a pied-à-terre in town. Corporate relocators are back too. “In the last week, we’ve had an unprecedented number of transfers, particularly from Australia, Canada, the US and India,” comments Marcus Ward, director of corporate services at Dexters. His agency has quite the trophy rental: a mock Tudor 1890s, seven-bedroom mansion on Knightsbridge’s Herbert Crescent, available for £16,500 a week. Then there are families who can’t find anything to buy so they are renting in the meantime. Good family houses between
