Private rental prices in Brixton continue to be set at eye-watering levels.
The town centre Foxtons is asking more than the equivalent of £30,000 a year for a short let two-bedroom flat in Holmewood Gardens, Brixton Hill.
The firm wants £2,600 a month – £600 a week – for the property.
Rival estate agent Marcus Barnard said earlier this year that London landlords had increased rents by an average of 8% a year after the supply of property available to tenants fell 17% and that in the city there are 8.5 applicants to every property available to rent, up from 5.3 12 months before.
Foxtons says property prices in Brixton have risen by 11.3% over the last year.
Its website boasts that it has let
- A one-bed flat on Ferndale Road for £1,500 a month
- A one-bed flat in Belvedere Place off Acre Lane for £1,450 a month
- A three-bed flat in Hargwyne Street, SW9, for £2,400 a month.
It says the average weekly rental in Brixton is now £554, which is 23.2% below the average rent in London of £721 a week.
If you have just won the Lottery, Foxtons has a five-bedroom house in Stockwell for £1,142 a week – £4,950 a month or about £60,000 a year.
If you can find £1,000 a month for a studio flat in Electric Avenue, you will also have to stump up a deposit of £1,385 and an “administration fee” of £420 which, Foxtons reassures you, includes VAT.
For Foxtons, £1,000 a month is almost as low as it goes. The firm has just one rental property on its website at less than that – a £925-a-month studio flat on Electric Avenue – which it says was let recently.
If you want to sleep in a car, you are unlucky. The estate agent recently let a parking space on New Park Road, Brixton Hill, for £90 a month – just over £20 a week.
The rentbarometer website lists average weekly rentals sought by estate agents for a one-bedroom flat in Brixton as between £306 (Black Katz) and £348 (Haart). Its figures are based on prices recorded over the previous six months.
Ive lived in Brixton 6 years and if i was asked to move out of the flat I’m currently living in, I’d be screwed. To get a similar flat in todays renting market I’d be looking at easily £500 more a month……
The great London contradiction:
a.) People want to live in London and won’t contemplate moving out.
b.) London bleeds people dry and they whinge endlessly about it.
Pick the seeds out of that one.
“Its website boats that it has let” At least bother to proof read!
Eternally in your debt
This is a short term let hence the increased price. Having said that, it’s still mental!
Incredible really. That amount of money for that flat is really outrageous. Me and my flat mate had to move out from our previous 2 bed little house because the landlord increased the rent by 15% from £1675pm to £1950. And when he couldn’t get anyone to take it (he was using Beresford) he told us that estate agents told them he can get that amount of money. I doesn’t matter whether it’s Foxton’s or any other estate agent really. All they do is work for landlord’s favour – if you check any reviews for any estate agent on Google you’ll see it’s only landlords that leave a very nice 5 stars and a comment beause obviously they’re making a lot of money out of it. It really hurts to see this happen and not able to do anything about it. The government keeps talking about affordable houses but when the rents are so high how are we gonna save the deposit to buy an *affordable house* ? Londoners seem to have lost all their hopes and try to get on with it but I hate to be seen as a potential source for money making for such a basic need. Anyway, rant over 🙂
Foxtons (especially Brixton branch) regularly keep properties on their website which have been let to entice potential renters to enquire & put on their books. When you’re told that particular property has already been let they’ll encourage you to go above your limit and told that’s the only option. Horrid behaviour, luckily for me and my pals we weren’t falling for this, but it’s easy to see how people can get into the situation of not being able to afford rent.
As extortionate as rental prices in London are, that property is about a grand over it’s current ‘worth’. I’d be amazed if they let it for that much.
Highlights Foxtons shameless attempts to distort the market even more so. They really are parasites.