According to the latest Rightmove data, annual searches for rental homes in areas of Zones 1 & 2 have jumped significantly.
The portal's research of over 23m property searches found that Nine Elms in Wandsworth has seen the biggest annual rise in rental searches in the capital, up 126%, with average asking rents in the area now at £2,802 per calendar month, down 15% compared to a year ago.
Again in Wandsworth, Battersea has also seen rental searches more than double over the past 12 months (+111%), followed by Clapham Common (+109%), suggesting that this highlights a growing trend of people wanting to move back to urban hubs.
All of Rightmove’s top 10 latest rental hotspots are within Zones 1 & 2. This is in stark contrast to last August when renters searching in the capital were home-hunting in the outer zones.
Chessington topped the list in August, and all but two of the top 10 hotspots were located in Zone 3 and beyond.
Figures from last summer reflected a shift in people wanting to move to areas with quieter transport links as office-based working and rail commutes became less frequent. However, the tide appears to be turning, with annual growth of rental searches in Inner London now outperforming last summer’s search activity.
Last August, Canary Wharf ranked 203rd in terms of annual growth in rental searches (+20%), but the urban hub has now moved up the rankings to 8th place, with annual search growth of 89%.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s Director of Property Data, comments: “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. 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. Our list of London’s top rental hotspots is dominated by locations in Zones 1 and 2 and that represents a significant shift in search behaviour.”
Lucy Pendleton, co-founder at James Pendleton in Southwest London, adds: “We’ve undoubtedly seen renewed interest from renters looking to move to places across Nine Elms and Battersea. This part of London is a great place to live and there are lots of little pockets of communities that cater to everybody’s taste. It’s a really vibrant, busy part of the capital that – especially in normal circumstances – has a brilliant social scene and also plenty of green spaces given how close we are to the heart of the city. There were lots of people who thought that London would turn into a ghost town over lockdown, and yes, some people have moved further afield but that migration happens every year.
“It’s motivated by a change in lifestyle and predominantly because of growing families wanting to be near certain schools. However, in terms of lettings revenue, we’ve now surpassed where we were at this stage in 2019 and 2020 – so people still do want to live in the city. I’m sure that working patterns will continue to evolve, as they have done over the past year or so, and that may mean more home working than before, but once pubs and bars and the rest of that industry reopen, I expect we’ll continue to see interest increase even further.”
