Prime London Market Update - May 2021

24 May 2021

With the housing market effectively closed in April last year due to the first national lockdown, our usual comparisons cannot be relied upon to give a true indication of the current health of the prime market. For this reason, we compare April 2021 with April 2019 and take into account the five-year average (2015 - 2019) for April.

That said, LonRes data reveals that the levels of market activity exceeded expectations during April, with the number of homes put under offer the highest for any April since 2013 for sales. Rents also seem to have bottomed out as demand starts to rise.

Inside the May 2021 issue

Sales Update

  • The number of homes put under offer this year was at the highest level for any April over the last eight years;
  • Following on from the above, the same was true for transactions which outperformed the long-run average by 5%;
  • New instructions rose 35% with April this year seeing 10% more new instructions than the five-year average (2015 - 2019).

Lettings Update

  • Rents are stabalising with demand for certain property types increasing and new instructions falling;
  • There is higher demand for smaller properties with the number of studio flats let so far this year up 15% on 2019 levels;
  • There is evidence that the significant falls in achieved rents have bottomed out too. Comparing rents achieved at the most recent peak in early 2020 with average monthly rents shows rents in February 2021 were, on average, 18.1% lower across prime London.

LonRes Charts

For sales

  • Change in number of properties put under offer
  • Change in achieved prices

For lettings

  • Change in number of properties let by type
  • Achieved rents - change since Jan/Feb 2020 peak

Access the issue

Contact

Marcus Dixon
Head of Research, LonRes
T: 020 7924 6622
E: research@lonres.com