In a display of competitiveness in the rental market, one Chadwell Heath home reportedly received 52 offers last week.
The landlord for the two-bedroom house in Cornshaw Road was spoilt for choice as 162 viewings were booked for the property, flooding the street with a long queue of interested parties.
Adeel Hasnain, a prospective tenant, had travelled all the way from Harrow for the viewing. He was stunned to see the amount of people who had gathered for it like him, and posted videos of the crowd on social media.
Housing situation in #London is serious…
— Adeel Hasnain (@hasnainadeel) March 18, 2023
One property and above 60 family viewing #HousingCrisis #london @1SanaJafri @MayorofLondon pic.twitter.com/7KGifn4Y2Z
Adeel told this paper about his struggle to rent a home in London. He said: “Nowadays it has been very difficult to get a suitable house at a price you can afford. I have been looking for more than a month but still haven’t made much progress."
Read More: Romford postcodes among London’s ‘hottest’ property markets
Adam Picton, the local lettings expert for the agency Purple Bricks that arranged for the viewings, shared with this paper that the location and the characteristics of the home were the main crowd-pullers.
He said: “First of all, the price compared to most two-bedroom houses near the station was somewhat generous.
“It's pretty hard finding a property that ticks every single box, but when it's within your budget, has a garden, has two double bedrooms, a driveway, is close to the station, is within school catchments, a decent sized kitchen and a shed for storage...most tenants would give an arm and a leg for all that."
The house ended up going for a price that was £150 above its original asking rate, and some tenants were reportedly offering to pay more.
A new analysis recently revealed that two Havering postcodes, RM5 and RM7, were among the hottest property hotspots in the market currently.
People who cannot afford to live in inner London due to the cost-of-living crisis are venturing out to the outer boroughs stirring up demand for houses, according to experts.
Matt Thompson, head of sales at estate agency chain Chestertons, said: “What’s further driving demand for these areas are ongoing infrastructural investments such as the Elizabeth Line which has vastly extended the search radius for some house hunters."
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