For a third consecutive year, London has been named Europe’s most expensive city for renting accommodation, despite Brexit casting some uncertainty over the financial hub.
In a report published Wednesday, analytics firm ECA International found that rent in London is currently almost £3,700 higher than the average monthly cost of renting across Europe.
An unfurnished, mid-market, three-bedroom apartment in prime areas of London costs around £5,398 a month, ECA found, also making rent in the capital almost four times higher than the average rent in other major UK cities.
Alec Smith, accommodation services manager at ECA, said that in recent months the biggest rent increases in the UK had been in Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, due to high demand. He said that in Aberdeen, the downturn in the oil and gas industry had sent rents sliding.
He pointed out that in London there is still “a large amount of uncertainty in the financial sector in light of the Brexit vote” but that this doesn’t appear to be deterring renters in swathes.
“It remains to be seen whether financial regulation in the City is likely to change much post-Brexit. Changes to stamp duty in 2016 led to a rush from landlords to purchase buy-to-let properties, which increased the supply of rental accommodation across prime areas of London. This increased competition among landlords contributed to the modest falls in average rent in the UK’s capital, although it is still the most expensive in Europe,” he said.
ECA found Moscow to be the second most expensive European city to rent in, followed by Zurich, Geneva, Istanbul, Kiev, Paris, Amsterdam and Dublin.
Globally, Hong Kong tops the ranking, with the cost of monthly rent for an unfurnished, mid-market, three-bedroom apartment in prime locations averaging about $10,461 or about £7,586. ECA attributed Hong Kong’s sky-high prices to high population density and a “consistently limited supply of property”.
