More on Londonland rents

I'm still thinking about that article by Eva Wiseman about how her generation will never be able to afford to buy property and rents are too high. And I'm ploughing through the RightMove property website looking at rents in different London boroughs.

Here's a chart I put together

I spent most of my Bank Holiday Monday scraping the data to make that map, and then this morning found almost the same thing is on the charity Shelter's website here, apart from they're a bit presumptive, rather than labelling average rents they suppose that you need to earn about 2.5 times rent for it to be affordable. Which is where Eva Wiseman's figure of £67,669  to live in Tower Hamlets comes from. Its using a rule of thumb to come up with a very precise figure. How much of your income to spend on rent is a very personal choice, rather than something to be foised on you by a charity.

Anyhoo, I digress...

Of course the City of London has the most expensive average rents, how could it be otherwise, its the centre of the capital, and so, of course the boroughs neighbouring it are going to be less expensive but still amongst the most expensive in the country.

If you want to buy property and you're Eva Wiseman or one of her minimum wage call-centre friends then don't look at the most expensive places in London, look to the cheaper boroughs, the more affordable ones.

Its just a little small-minded to assume that all of the British Isles except the centre of london is uninhabitable.

Here's a table of rents culled from various searches on RightMove:-

Up to	£700	£800	£900	£1,000	£1,250	£1,500	£1,750	£2,000	£2,500	£3,000	£3,500	Total properties available	Average monthly rent
City of London	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	30	183	70	284	£2,817.34
Kensington and Chelsea	0	0	0	0	0	7	36	89	303	504	509	1448	£2,732.73
Westminster	0	0	0	0	0	5	80	175	526	471	644	1901	£2,649.53
Camden	0	0	0	0	1	44	187	185	342	213	132	1104	£2,261.44
Islington	0	0	0	0	13	57	158	165	236	183	70	882	£2,177.86
Hammersmith and Fulham	0	1	0	0	8	57	186	121	198	90	35	696	£2,045.98
Tower Hamlets	0	0	1	1	47	338	868	646	614	437	244	3196	£2,039.24
Richmond upon Thames	0	0	4	7	46	79	62	52	80	40	26	396	£1,876.70
Hackney	0	0	0	1	24	97	142	123	84	23	23	517	£1,836.94
Wandsworth	0	0	2	3	47	312	341	154	190	67	52	1168	£1,806.55
Southwark	0	0	0	3	106	167	223	144	130	62	26	861	£1,778.86
Hounslow	0	0	13	37	101	113	116	104	227	32	5	748	£1,756.28
Lambeth	0	0	1	10	98	211	208	108	105	64	21	826	£1,733.32
Ealing	0	2	3	15	96	298	160	69	75	14	7	739	£1,563.50
Merton	0	0	8	20	101	132	60	37	25	22	15	420	£1,555.48
Brent	0	2	2	7	82	118	148	30	10	3	0	402	£1,472.26
Haringey	0	0	2	14	150	106	99	25	23	4	2	425	£1,427.06
Barnet	0	0	5	35	245	296	132	37	19	19	7	795	£1,411.01
Newham	0	3	42	106	248	262	160	62	39	10	17	949	£1,395.84
Kingston upon Thames	0	0	0	15	113	111	34	9	7	4	6	299	£1,379.18
Greenwich	0	13	45	52	127	129	89	19	11	9	2	496	£1,318.35
Harrow	0	1	5	32	115	65	8	8	8	0	1	243	£1,248.56
Lewisham	0	2	32	62	159	95	24	18	2	4	0	398	£1,224.56
Enfield	0	2	13	60	301	66	6	0	0	0	0	448	£1,135.41
Bromley	2	4	44	75	132	68	9	1	0	0	0	335	£1,112.50
Waltham Forest	0	1	32	125	268	49	5	2	0	0	0	503	£1,092.00
Redbridge	0	0	23	51	53	9	0	0	0	0	0	136	£1,080.05
Sutton	0	0	23	51	53	9	0	0	0	0	0	136	£1,029.41
Croydon	0	3	92	164	129	21	2	1	2	0	0	414	£1,014.19
Barking and Dagenham	0	14	52	69	55	4	0	0	0	0	0	194	£967.14
Havering	1	16	68	52	44	11	0	0	1	0	0	193	£967.75
Bexley	1	29	58	19	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	115	£859.13

The table shows how many two bedroom properties there are to let at each price point in each London borough. For example, in Bexley there are 58 two bedroom properties to let at between £800 and £900 per month.

To use this table, first work out how much your household can afford to spend on rent each month, between a third and a half of your monthly income, then look at which boroughs have properties at that price point.

Easy peasy.

I get the impression that Eva Wiseman is a stroppy middle class snob frustrated that she can't afford to live in stylish and expensive Kensington and Chelsea, stamping her foot crying "But I don't want to live in Havering!".

What I don't quite understand though is how the number of properties available in each borough decreases as average rents decrease. For example, Tower Hamlets, one of the more expensive areas to live has over 3,000 properties available, and Sutton, one of the cheaper areas has only 136. Its like the opposite of supply and demand.