Rental portal Rentd says the pandemic-long decline in the London rental market is now “reversing at speed”.

Rental values are climbing annually across 42 per cent of London boroughs, while tenant demand has increased across every London borough since this time last year.

With the current average rent sitting at £1,597 across London, tenants are still benefiting from a pandemic decline in rental values, paying three per cent less per month on average compared to a year ago. 

The City of London continues to be the worst hit, with rental values down 19 per cent versus a year ago, with Lambeth (down 12 per cent) and Westminster (down 10 per cent) also enduring a double-digit decline. 

However, not every borough of the capital is following this top line trend. Kingston upon Thames has seen the largest increase in rental values over the last year at 12 per cent, with Bexley up eight per cent and Croydon, put seven per cent, also seeing a notable increase.

As many as 11 other boroughs have also seen rental values climb year on year, albeit at a more conservative rate of between one and three per cent. 

Rentd also analysed rental demand based on the proportion of rental homes listed across London that have already been snapped up by returning tenants. 

The research shows that 42 per cent of rental market stock has already been let in the current London market, a 12 per cent increase on this time last year.

Barking and Dagenham has seen the largest uplift in demand with a 23 per cent increase in the level of rental stock being let, with Waltham Forest, Newham, Haringey and Greenwich also seeing some of the largest jumps.

Rentd founder Ahmed Gamal comments: “During the pandemic, the London rental market was knocked for six due to a severe decline in both domestic and international tenant demand. The result of which was some drastic declines in rental values and we’re still seeing the tailwind of this trend today. 

“However, as we’ve edged further and further back towards normality rental values have started to climb in many areas and we’ve also seen an uplift in rental demand across the entire market.”