Central London’s rental appeal revives as COVID recedes: Rightmove By Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – Renters’ appetite for property in central London and its inner suburbs has jumped as life appears nearer to returning to normal as the COVID pandemic recedes, data from property website Rightmove showed on Wednesday.

Rightmove said the 10 London locations that had seen the biggest increase in property searches compared with a year ago were all within 5 miles of the centre, in sharp contrast to August when the demand was for more distant suburbs.

The figures represent a potential reversal of a lockdown trend in which people moved out of city centre locations in favour of bigger houses with more green space.

“Last year we identified a clear trend of renters moving out to quieter parts of Greater London as the allure of life in the city centre became less appealing during lockdown,” Rightmove’s director of property data, Tim Bannister, said.

“However, with the prospect of some kind of normality potentially on the horizon, it appears that the capital’s renters are now looking to return to Inner London, and making the move now to take advantage of the lower rents.”

Rents are down by 10-15% from a year ago in the parts of London that are now seeing the biggest rise in interest.

Other measures of Britain’s housing market suggested the pandemic-driven boom in the housing market had started to fade ahead of the planned expiry of a temporary cut to property purchase tax – known as stamp duty – at the end of March.

But last week finance minister Rishi Sunak partly extended this tax break until the end of September and announced a new mortgage guarantee scheme for first-time buyers who cannot afford large deposits.

The number of new COVID-19 cases recorded in the United Kingdom has fallen back to levels seen since late September, government data show.