Wandsworth has emerged as London’s latest rental hotspot with two reports this week highlighting how rapidly prices in the area are rising.
“Prices on some properties are going up £1,000 since they were last on the market,” says Alice Karn, lettings manager of the Wandsworth branch of estate agents Chestertons. “It almost feels a bit mean.”
But demand is such that even these steep rises don’t deter would-be tenants, and many places are let for higher than their asking price.
“We only ever have about 10 properties available and they often go within 24 hours,” says Karn.
Inundated with enquiries
Chestertons recently listed a property in the area at £1,800, some 30 per cent higher than its previous listing at the start of last year, and received eight enquiries within an hour.
“It will go for over the asking price,” says Karn. “People are taking places from videos — someone recently said they didn’t have time to watch a video and made a decision from photos. They lose out on a couple of places and get desperate.”
Karn says Wandsworth has become “more of a destination” and was appealing to young professionals who could not afford to buy in the district or to rent in Clapham or Putney.
“It is slightly more affordable and very well connected,” she says. “People are also becoming less fussy in the current market. Where they use to insist on being five minutes’ walk from the Tube they will now consider taking the bus.”
The spike in demand in the area stands out even against the backdrop of ongoing rent hikes across London as a whole.
Rent rises in the capital
London region |
Growth in rents in Q2 2023 |
Inner south-west (Battersea to Wimbledon) |
2.6% |
Inner west (Brook Green to Ealing) |
1.7% |
Inner north-west (Primrose Hill to Hampstead Heath) |
1.3% |
Central (Chelsea to Marylebone) |
0.8% |
Inner north and east (Islington to Hackney) |
0.7% |
Source: Savills
Figures from Savills showed the estate agent’s Wandsworth office recorded the capital’s sharpest price increases for tenants in the second quarter of this year.
Savills saw a 2.6 per cent hike in rents in its inner-south-west London region in the second quarter of this year. This slice of the capital, which stretches from Battersea and Fulham to Richmond and Wimbledon, was by far the fastest rising for tenancy prices from March to June.
Wandsworth Town saw the sharpest rise of all, with rents up 6.6 per cent in just three months.
Oliver Sloggett-Taylor, lettings director for south-west London at Savills, says homes are going within 48 hours, with people attracted by schools, green spaces, strong transport links and the range of properties.
“The fact that the area offers new build developments as well as converted Victorian houses and larger family homes means that there is suitability across all tenant types,” he adds.
“Along with long-term residents of the area, we are starting to see people considering areas like Clapham, Wandsworth and Battersea for the first time. Some of these are tenants who’ve pivoted their search from more central locations to get more for their budget.”
The perfect storm
Data from property insurance provider HomeLet has also revealed that the south-west London area saw the highest jump in rents across the capital in June.
Average rent in the borough of Wandsworth was £2,423 in June, the report found, up 4.2 per cent — or almost £100 — since May.
This is more than double the 1.9 per cent increase seen across Greater London, where average rents reached a record £2,077 last month.
The data shows that the average cost of renting in the capital is now more than double the typical price elsewhere in the UK.
Source: HomeLet
HomeLet chief executive Andy Halstead says the sector is “in the eye of the perfect storm” with soaring interest rates and other costs driving up prices as well as pushing landlords away from the market and choking availability.
“Things will not calm down for quite some time,” he adds. “Supply is a major problem.”
“Who would have ever believed that renting a home is becoming a luxury that few can really afford? It is time for change.”
The HomeLet figures show that many of London’s outer boroughs — including Havering, Croydon and Barnet — had seen double-digit rent increases in the past year.
Marcus Dixon, director of UK residential research at property specialists JLL, says market forces are driving tenants from the heart of the capital.
“The imbalance between supply and demand and the resulting rise in rents are driving tenants further afield in search of properties which suit their needs and budgets,” he says.
“As tenants are pushed further out, they take budgets from higher value locations into lower value ones driving up rents.”
