This weekend the clocks go back marking the end of British Summer time and as Autumn turns to Winter thoughts turn to hearth and home and hibernation. An Englishman’s home may be his castle; or his Edwardian terrace or his two bed garden flat or at least it would be if we had any to offer on the lettings market.

Will this be a Winter of discontent?

Well if you’re a tenant hoping to move then it might be.

Covid numbers appear to be rising, there are mutterings of further restrictions (please Boris not again!), there’s been panic at the petrol stations and the very real crisis of Waitrose running low on festive pigs in blankets – the horror…….and around the Commons we are seeing a significant drop in lettings stock.

Rightmove figures this week show that in our area available rental stock has fallen by 73% from this time last year and continues to fall……and fall. There is a huge disparity between supply and demand. Frankly, if we list a lettings property we know we will receive multiple offers and as a result we have many tenants registered who will be disappointed.

Why do we think this is happening?

Well certainly the immense success of our sales teams must take some credit/blame.

There have been many reluctant Landlords in the market for a number of years and with the uplift in sales prices many have chosen to cash in their chips, off-loading their investments at levels that they have long been hoping for.

These Landlords have not been replaced by new investors and our typical accidental Landlords have not been joining the ranks either. The likes of the banking couple relocating to Hong Kong at short notice etc, for obvious reasons there just doesn’t seem to be the international movement that we have been used to historically on our patch.

This constriction in the market is made increasingly worse by tenants not moving through fear of not finding their next home. Tenants are hibernating.

The net result of this is that rents are strong, our tenancies are currently renewing with a 5% increase on average and the tenants are happy to pay it.

So what can we do?

Well firstly and crucially, if you have a property you are thinking about letting – now is the time, please speak to us and we’d be thrilled to give you a market valuation.

Secondly where the leaves have fallen we know there is always regeneration – it may be a little premature to think of Spring when we are currently on the threshold of the Winter Equinox but certainly there are some promising green shoots.

We are seeing more potential landlords who are making a move – either the well-trodden path outside the M25 or over-seas, hopefully this will result in an increase in stock levels which will benefit tenants.

We remain optimistic – after all what falls down must stagger up, even if tentatively so!