Renters in London see rents soar by 11% in a year

According to Foxtons, the average weekly rent for tenants in London last month was 11% higher than in August 2022, with rental prices remaining high for the third consecutive month.

The average rental price has shown little change since June.

Applicant registrations increased by 6% month on month, with August seeing the largest volume of registrations in 2023.

However, the total volume of applicants was lower than that seen during the particularly competitive market in August 2022 and more in line with levels of demand seen in 2021.

‘Steady market growth throughout the year’

Gareth Atkins, the managing director of lettings at Foxtons, said: “August remained in line with our expectations and there was gradual, steady market growth throughout the year.

“Compared to July, demand rose, supply fell, and prices remained consistently high.”

He added: “However, competition was not nearly as frenetic as it was in 2022 and as such, we have not seen further significant price increases.

“Across our office network, we continue to see more landlords requesting our management service to protect their asset from a financial and compliance perspective.”

23 new renters per new rental instruction

Foxtons also says there was an average of 23 new renters per new rental instruction, an 11% increase on July.

However, compared to August last year, the number of new renters per new instruction has fallen by 17%.

And the firm’s data shows that East London has seen a 46% month on month increase in renters per instruction, with an average of 38 renters.

35,000 new instructions in August

The firm has also analysed Zoopla data and found there were more than 35,000 new instructions in August, a decrease of 7% from July.

However, this was up 8% compared to 2022.

More than 10% of these new instructions across London were in Westminster, which had the highest proportion of instructions compared to other boroughs.

London continued to experience the highest rental applicant budgets seen in recent years, with a 7% increase compared to 2022.

Foxtons also says that renter spend rose 1% month on month, with applicants spending on average 100% of their rental budgets to secure a tenancy in August.

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