Rents in London have dropped sharply for the second quarter running as demand from tenants continues to fall.

SpareRoom has revealed its quarterly rental index, showing that rents in the city dropped significantly during the third quarter of 2020, falling by 7% year-on-year.

Excluding London, the UK saw an overall increase in room rents, up 2% on 2019, with Scotland the only other UK region to see rents fall, down 2% from £490 per calendar month (pcm) to £481pcm.

Although London fared worse than other English cities, Edinburgh saw the biggest rent drop out of the UK’s 50 largest towns and cities, with rents down 10% between Q3 2019 and Q3 2020.

But the latest data has left the portal’s director, Matt Hutchinson, in no doubt that London is rapidly losing its appeal as far as many renters are concerned.

He commented: “Once again, London dominates the headlines in terms of falling rents, and it’s generally the most expensive neighbourhoods that are worst affected.

“With so many young renters leaving the capital, either to find cheaper rents, to move with family, or to leave the UK altogether, it’s hard to know when, or even if, London will regain the appeal it had before the pandemic.

“What we’re seeing might just be a temporary shift in the rental market, or it may be the start of the UK’s rental map being redrawn permanently.

“Even if young renters do return to the capital in their previous numbers, affordability will be their absolute top priority, in a city that already had an affordability crisis coming into this.”