‘A bad situation is becoming disastrous’: Number of homes for rent in London has plummeted since Covid - The Big Issue

The period is interesting

The research showed the number of one, two and three bedroom properties available for rent across London was down around 36% since when comparing listings from January to March 2023 with the average across the same period from 2017 to 2019.

So within the span of 4ish years we lost our rental stock?

Or was there a bit of an investment into rental stock that peaked around 2019 and then the Stamp Duty freeze helped level that by returning the stock into private hands?

The LSE research suggested that landlords are moving away from letting to low-income households in favour of higher rents.

Researchers found 40% of landlords who had rented to low-income tenants have reduced their letting in the last two years. Tenant and council behaviour and the benefit system, as well as increased costs, were cited as reasons why landlords stepped away from providing temporary accommodation or homes for homelessness prevention.

Homelessness increased by 26% An estimated 3,069 people spent the night sleeping rough in 2022, an annual increase of 26%, the biggest year-on-year rise since 2015 and 74% higher than 2010, the year these statistics were first collected.