The lettings market across prime London is in line with where it was at this time last year according to LonRes, the London property data company.  

In its snapshot for the end of October, is says average rents in prime London are 35.4% above their 2017-2019 (pre-pandemic) average, but in October annual rental growth slowed to 1.4%. 

There were 10.9% fewer lets agreed in October than a year earlier, but year-to-date lettings activity is around 4% ahead of where it was at the same point in 2023. Similarly, new letting instructions in October were 6.5% lower than a year earlier (table 1), but the year-to-date figure is up 3.8%.

The stock of available homes to let is recovering steadily but remains a long way off pre-pandemic levels.  

For prime London across all price points the number of properties available to let were 0.8% higher at the end of October than a year earlier, but 44.4% lower than five years ago.  

Broken down by price band, availability at lower rental values has started to increase but it has a lot further to go compared to the top end of the prime lettings market. 

Below £750 per week, availability was 2.7% higher at the end of October than a year earlier but it remains almost 70% below where it was five years ago.

Above £2,000 per week the recovery to pre-pandemic levels is almost complete – available stock is within 8% of where it was five years ago and is still rising on an annual basis.