Real estate: prices skyrocket in the UK in recent months
Some young workers are forced to stay with their parents until prices drop.
A London real estate agent says he receives clients every day who are in tears because they cannot find anything to rent.
AFP - TOLGA AKMEN
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In the UK, house prices have exploded over the past four months.
An effect of the Covid-19 crisis.
The trend may not last, but for now it is having consequences.
Advertising
Read more
With our correspondent in London,
Marie Boëda
It's the "space race," say real estate agencies.
The pandemic has changed the way of life of the British: during the lockdown, they got closer to nature.
Country houses have thus become attractive, and this is reflected in prices: 9% increase for houses, against 6% for apartments.
John owns a property that he wants to sell to buy bigger.
He looks carefully at the real estate advertisements in front of a London office.
“
This year,
” he says, “
there has been a sharp increase in prices.
But I think they're artificially high, so I won't buy now, I'm waiting until the end of the year, and there are rumors that it might drop.
"
This is also the opinion of Halifax, one of the largest bank lending agencies in the country.
Ségolène Chambon runs a real estate agency in London.
If the selling price has increased by only 1% in the capital, the rental price is skyrocketing, she recounts:
About 15%, this is due in particular to the massive return of people who had left to work in the countryside, in particular, and who return to work face-to-face in their office.
On the other hand, we see that all the foreign students are coming back to London, so there is a huge demand, little supply, a lack of stock in real estate agencies which drives up prices.
Some young workers are forced to stay with their parents until prices drop.
A London real estate agent says he receives tearful customers every day because they can't find anything to rent.
► Listen on RFI: The real estate turmoil during the Covid era
Newsletter
Receive all international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
UK
Lodging
Economy
Social issues