Renters in crisis

HOUSING CRUNCH Finding a home to rent in London has spiralled into a full-blown nightmare, with housemates forced into brutal choices and rents quadrupling overnight.

- Ruth Bloomfield

Trapped in a rental nightmare

With rents nudging £2,000 a month, finding a home in London is more difficult than ever. Ruth Bloomfield reports

When Ana Oppenheim and her three housemates signed a two year contract on a house in New Cross last summer they were pretty relieved. True, the house was run-down but it was also reasonable value Oppenheim's rent was £760pcm and they were looking at it being their long-term home.

Then, at the start of the summer, their landlord decided to move into the property and the friends were given notice.

Oppenheim, 28, a parliamentary assistant, has been renting in London for a decade and in the past finding a new rental had been a drag but not a problem. This time around, after struggling even to secure viewings, she realised things had changed radically.

Over the past few months renting a home in London has moved from being a tricky and expensive manoeuvre to a full-blown nightmare.

Recent research from Home Let found that rents in London were now nudging ever closer to £2,000 per month as increasingly desperate renters compete for the few homes on offer.

The supply/demand imbalance is striking. Flatsharing website Spareroom says there are now seven renters for every room available in London as people who left during the pandemic return combined with the summer influx of students.