W A Ellis’ overview of this week’s market - 03/09/2010

This week has seen a marginal drop in the frenzied activity of the past couple of weeks which is expected for a Bank holiday week, particularly with schools beginning to go back.  The high net worth students have continued to make the one and two bedroom area of the market very  busy and this, together with the family house market, are the areas where there is a drastic lack of stock.  We anticipate a renewed surge of activity starting from next week which will continue until the middle of October

Rents are beginning to rise quite sharply in some areas due to the lack of stock which will push up yields and hopefully encourage investors to buy to let, provided they can find the right investment stock.

The majority of tenants are continuing to renew and pay substantial increases in order to stay.  Our average annual increase is currently running at 8% and we are noticing that very few tenants are terminating their tenancies.  We are in the midst of a landlord’s market where they can call the shots on not only the rent but the tenancy terms too.