Rental growth for London’s most expensive properties returned to positive territory in March.
The claim comes from property data consultancy LonRes, which says that other metrics confirm that demand is relatively strong, particularly at lower price points where supply remains constrained.
Average rental values increased by 0.3% on an annual basis in March, a return to growth after three consecutive monthly falls.
Longer term, rents are 33.2% above their 2017-2019 (pre-pandemic) average.
LonRes data for March indicated an annual increase of 36.3% in lets agreed and a 61.7% increase in new instructions.
The stock of available rental properties increased on an annual basis, with 48.4% more homes on the market across prime London at the end of March than a year earlier.
LonRes says that these large rises are in part due to listings recovering rather than the actual number of properties; in the strong post-pandemic market agents often did not need to list properties to achieve a deal, so volumes appeared to fall significantly more than the true picture.
Time on the market data gives an additional indication of the strength of demand.
Across prime London and for all price points, the average time between listing and move-in was 62 days in Q1.
This is faster than the 69 days recorded in Q1 2025 and the long-term (2015 to 2024) average (also 69 days).
Broken down by rental values, there is a clear distinction between price points.
Above £5,000 per week, average time to let has increased from a long-term average of 115 days to 140 in Q1 2026, though this is slightly quicker than Q1 last year (147 days).
For properties at £2-5,000 per week, Q1 2026 was in line with the long-term average, while at lower price points time to let is still reducing, indicating strong demand.