Knight Frank says the plummeting rents in prime central London have not less than managed to attract a surge within the variety of tenant enquiries.
The company says that the variety of tenancies began within the first two months of this yr in PCL was 5 per cent up on 2020 – the 2 months earlier than the pandemic began within the UK in earnest.
Knight Frank says the autumn in rents has been created by a fall within the variety of worldwide college students and company tenants, underlined by passenger numbers by way of Heathrow plummeting by 80 to 90 per cent.
Meanwhile, a excessive degree of short-let properties are nonetheless within the long-let market, driving provide nonetheless greater.
The company insists that “there are early indicators that the pattern might solely have plenty of months left to run.”
On the provision aspect, the UK authorities has mentioned that staycations could also be allowed from the center of subsequent month, which can ultimately cut back the amount of inventory on the long-let market – though Knight Frank cautions that there’s a certain quantity already within the system that can take a time period to unwind as tenancy agreements expire.
“The image we’re getting is of accelerating optimism for the spring and significantly the summer season” says John Humphris, head of relocation and company companies at Knight Frank.
“Many corporates have plans that have been placed on maintain and they’re now contemplating re-activating them, with the tech and media firms main the way in which. There are some query marks over the impression of latest Covid-19 variants however the success of the UK’s vaccine rollout has been a robust increase for sentiment in the remainder of the world.”
