London needs 83,000 new private rented homes a year to meet housing demand, according to a report from the National Residential Landlords Association.

It says if owner-occupied and social rented homes in the UK continue at their ten-year average rate of growth the capital would need this amount of new rental properties a year over the next decade.

The study, conducted by economics consultancy Capital Economics on behalf of the landlord’s body, says its calculations are based on government targets to build 340,000 homes a year across the UK by the middle of this decade to meet future demand.

This amounts to 1.8 million new households across the country over the next ten years.

However, the supply of private rented housing in London has fallen by 85,000 over the past five years, according to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities’ latest English Housing Survey in December.

“Given that renting privately is often the first step young people take when they need to leave home or university, demand will only increase,” says the NRLA report.

It adds: “The 15 to 24-year-old cohort in London is forecast to grow between now and 2030 by over 120,000, almost 12%.”

The survey also points to additional data in December from research consultancy BVA-BDRC, which says that in central London 74% of private landlords saw an increase in demand for homes to rent in the fourth quarter of last year. This was up from 54% in BVA-BDRC’s 2021 third-quarter survey.

The NRLA report says the Treasury has to encourage investment in the sector to support the provision of new housing in several ways.

These include boosting the rate of new builds, switching commercial property to residential use, moving stock from short-term to long-term lets and bringing empty homes back into use.

National Residential Landlords Association chief executive Ben Beadle says: “As the demand for private rental properties picks up following the pandemic, renters across the capital will struggle to find the homes they need and want.

“For all the efforts to support homeownership, the private rented sector has a vital role to play in housing so many Londoners.

“Today’s analysis demonstrates the folly of the [London] mayor’s [Sadiq Khan] calls for rent controls in the capital, a policy which would serve only to freeze investment in the very homes renters need.”