Property Reporter are running an article by the MD at Castle Trust Bank, where he states that he believes London is bouncing back.

It starts‘Before our idea of ‘normal’ was shaken by Covid-19, the capital sat pretty as an ideal market for those landlords lucky or savvy enough to get themselves a property – demand could never conceivably falter, surely, so rents could creep higher and higher, as tenants fought tooth and nail to snap up properties as soon as they came on the market.

The global pandemic taught us the truth in the saying, ‘never say never’. A number of trends came together to suddenly make London a much less desirable prospect. Remote working became a reality for vast swathes of the office-based workforce, who previously had little choice but to live in easy distance from the city centre. Meanwhile, we became acutely aware of the importance of space, both indoor and outdoor – a luxury not afforded to many London renters.’

It also states that ‘In October 2020, SpareRoom’s quarterly index reported a price fall of as much as 34% for shared accommodation rent in some areas of London, with an overall yearly drop of 7% across the capital. Meanwhile, Benham and Reeves’ research suggests that between 2019 and 2020, the average London rent fell by 3.4%.’

And concludes ‘Of course, there are reasons why landlords are leaving the market. Increased taxation and regulation, for example, have made this market less about ‘easy money’ and more a full-time job. Nevertheless, for the committed individual, this is still a lucrative area of investment – the level of demand alone should prove that.

Whether in London during its spectacular resurgence, or one of the up-and-coming areas seeing a growth spurt post-Covid resurgence, landlords should be considering how to use the current demand dynamic to their advantage.’

The whole article can be seen here.