The latest edition of a housing market measure has suggested that one borough of London has seen rent rises of 33 per cent in the past 12 months.
Home says rents across Greater London continue to rise, up 19.6 per cent year-on-year. Scarcity remains a persistent problem although supply is now slowly rising from a record low.
The current new growth leaders in asking rents are the London boroughs of Ealing and Kensington and Chelsea, up 33 and 31 per cent respectively.
Most of Home’s latest market snapshot is devoted to the sales side, and says confidence is returning with doomsters predicting a crash being proven wrong once again.
“The fact is that home prices adapted quickly to rising borrowing costs and that haircut has reinvigorated demand. Confidence has returned and the fact that fixed-rate mortgages are available at below the current Bank of England base rate shows that a rate cut is already expected” comments Home director Doug Shephard.
He says asking prices in March rose in Scotland, Wales and all English regions except Greater London where prices slipped 0.3 per cent. The total sales stock count for England and Wales increased during March by 15,844 to reach 388,482, although the total remains well below the 10-year average of 420,297.
The ‘Typical Time on Market’ for unsold property in England and Wales – a key measure in the analysis of the market by Home – plummeted by 18 days during March to make the median 77 days and indicating, it says, a dramatic uptick in market momentum.
Shephard continues: “Typical Time on Market shows that homes are moving through the sales market at a fairly vigorous pace once again and supply of new instructions is surprisingly sober and restrained given the amount of doom and gloom promulgated by the mainstream.
“A further fact is that mortgage rates remain low by historic standards. Moreover, the stability of the UK banks is tied fundamentally to a healthy property market. So, it’s business as usual? Yes. Confidence has returned.”
