DAA Residential comments in the London Property Magazine. October 2011.

Strong demand, weak supply and historically low vacancy rates continue to hike up rents across the country particularly in London, where rents have increased by 7.1% over the past year, up to £1,009.00 per month according to a recent survey.

Faced with these fundamental supply/demand imbalances, there is very little to suggest that the current uptick in rents will abate any time soon even if the recent revival of the ‘buy to let’ market will translate into an increase in the number of rental properties available and, in time, could lead to lower rents.

Within Wapping & the Docklands, rents are up as well and the majority of new properties, according to Natasha Bedenik, DAA Residential’s Head of Letting, “are let often within hours or, at most, within a few days of going into the market”.

The area attracts an increasingly diverse range of residents including City and Canary Wharf-based young professionals, all of whom are attracted by the area’s unique ambiance, walking distance to work as well as the good transport links, via the new London Overground from Wapping Station, to Shoreditch and Hoxton.  According to Natasha, “The bars, restaurants and clubs of Shoreditch which are less than 15 minutes away, are real magnets for those tenants who are looking for a buzzy life/work balance in Wapping”.

Regardless of this buoyant rental demand, however, DAA Residential Ltd, which is an ARLA-licenced lettings agency, does not, of course, encourage ‘gazumping’ among prospective tenants for the properties that it lets though, of late, Natasha has witnessed growing competition among tenants for the same property and she simply urges prospective renters therefore ‘..to sign up if you like a property, otherwise you could lose out to someone who signs up straightaway”.

Natasha Bedenik

Director, Lettings

DAA Residential