Tuesday 8 May 2012

More on Londonland rents

I'm still thinking about that article by Eva Wiseman about how her generation will never be able to afford to buy property and rents are too high. And I'm ploughing through the RightMove property website looking at rents in different London boroughs.

Here's a chart I put together

I spent most of my Bank Holiday Monday scraping the data to make that map, and then this morning found almost the same thing is on the charity Shelter's website here, apart from they're a bit presumptive, rather than labelling average rents they suppose that you need to earn about 2.5 times rent for it to be affordable. Which is where Eva Wiseman's figure of £67,669  to live in Tower Hamlets comes from. Its using a rule of thumb to come up with a very precise figure. How much of your income to spend on rent is a very personal choice, rather than something to be foised on you by a charity.

Anyhoo, I digress...

Of course the City of London has the most expensive average rents, how could it be otherwise, its the centre of the capital, and so, of course the boroughs neighbouring it are going to be less expensive but still amongst the most expensive in the country.

If you want to buy property and you're Eva Wiseman or one of her minimum wage call-centre friends then don't look at the most expensive places in London, look to the cheaper boroughs, the more affordable ones.

Its just a little small-minded to assume that all of the British Isles except the centre of london is uninhabitable.

Here's a table of rents culled from various searches on RightMove:-

Up to £700 £800 £900 £1,000 £1,250 £1,500 £1,750 £2,000 £2,500 £3,000 £3,500 Total properties available Average monthly rent
City of London 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 30 183 70 284 £2,817.34
Kensington and Chelsea 0 0 0 0 0 7 36 89 303 504 509 1448 £2,732.73
Westminster 0 0 0 0 0 5 80 175 526 471 644 1901 £2,649.53
Camden 0 0 0 0 1 44 187 185 342 213 132 1104 £2,261.44
Islington 0 0 0 0 13 57 158 165 236 183 70 882 £2,177.86
Hammersmith and Fulham 0 1 0 0 8 57 186 121 198 90 35 696 £2,045.98
Tower Hamlets 0 0 1 1 47 338 868 646 614 437 244 3196 £2,039.24
Richmond upon Thames 0 0 4 7 46 79 62 52 80 40 26 396 £1,876.70
Hackney 0 0 0 1 24 97 142 123 84 23 23 517 £1,836.94
Wandsworth 0 0 2 3 47 312 341 154 190 67 52 1168 £1,806.55
Southwark 0 0 0 3 106 167 223 144 130 62 26 861 £1,778.86
Hounslow 0 0 13 37 101 113 116 104 227 32 5 748 £1,756.28
Lambeth 0 0 1 10 98 211 208 108 105 64 21 826 £1,733.32
Ealing 0 2 3 15 96 298 160 69 75 14 7 739 £1,563.50
Merton 0 0 8 20 101 132 60 37 25 22 15 420 £1,555.48
Brent 0 2 2 7 82 118 148 30 10 3 0 402 £1,472.26
Haringey 0 0 2 14 150 106 99 25 23 4 2 425 £1,427.06
Barnet 0 0 5 35 245 296 132 37 19 19 7 795 £1,411.01
Newham 0 3 42 106 248 262 160 62 39 10 17 949 £1,395.84
Kingston upon Thames 0 0 0 15 113 111 34 9 7 4 6 299 £1,379.18
Greenwich 0 13 45 52 127 129 89 19 11 9 2 496 £1,318.35
Harrow 0 1 5 32 115 65 8 8 8 0 1 243 £1,248.56
Lewisham 0 2 32 62 159 95 24 18 2 4 0 398 £1,224.56
Enfield 0 2 13 60 301 66 6 0 0 0 0 448 £1,135.41
Bromley 2 4 44 75 132 68 9 1 0 0 0 335 £1,112.50
Waltham Forest 0 1 32 125 268 49 5 2 0 0 0 503 £1,092.00
Redbridge 0 0 23 51 53 9 0 0 0 0 0 136 £1,080.05
Sutton 0 0 23 51 53 9 0 0 0 0 0 136 £1,029.41
Croydon 0 3 92 164 129 21 2 1 2 0 0 414 £1,014.19
Barking and Dagenham 0 14 52 69 55 4 0 0 0 0 0 194 £967.14
Havering 1 16 68 52 44 11 0 0 1 0 0 193 £967.75
Bexley 1 29 58 19 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 115 £859.13

The table shows how many two bedroom properties there are to let at each price point in each London borough. For example, in Bexley there are 58 two bedroom properties to let at between £800 and £900 per month.

To use this table, first work out how much your household can afford to spend on rent each month, between a third and a half of your monthly income, then look at which boroughs have properties at that price point.

Easy peasy.

I get the impression that Eva Wiseman is a stroppy middle class snob frustrated that she can't afford to live in stylish and expensive Kensington and Chelsea, stamping her foot crying "But I don't want to live in Havering!".

What I don't quite understand though is how the number of properties available in each borough decreases as average rents decrease. For example, Tower Hamlets, one of the more expensive areas to live has over 3,000 properties available, and Sutton, one of the cheaper areas has only 136. Its like the opposite of supply and demand.

10 comments:

  1. Perhaps she might want to move in here, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-18113969

    its affordable isn't it?

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  2. a bit late as reply but: the more expensive you expect to be able to let a property the more acceptable are longer times of vacancy. e.g. leaving a property vacant for 6 months to find a tenant who pays 3000£ pays off after 3 years in comparison to renting it for 2500£.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is a fantastic guide.Very interesting post..Thanks for sharing.
    Buy Ski Chalet France

    ReplyDelete