A local letting agent has said the rental market is rising following the easing of lockdown restrictions, being driven by a number of factors including people having to move for work.

Lodestone's Kate Lewis was commenting after property giant Rightmove released figures today (June 2) saying that demand for lettings across the country is up 22 per cent compared to last year, with the South West topping the table at 34 per cent.

Lockdown proved to be an interesting time for Lodestone Property's Lettings Advisor Kate Lewis: "Lodestone is an agile business so as soon as we heard about lockdown I was able to set up at home almost immediately".

Lodestone, based in Bruton, Wells and Shaftesbury, is an independent estate agency that prides itself in providing a high quality, personal service to its clients selling and lettings properties in Somerset and Dorset.

From her new 'office' Kate was busy throughout lockdown even though she was operating within government guidelines.

Says Kate: "We had just launched our new short-term lettings service (for less than six months) which had attracted a lot of interest from landlords and tenants, so we knew we were going to be busy as soon as restrictions were lifted".

During this time she found that people's circumstances had changed and required rental properties urgently and there were others from outside the area who wanted to secure a bolthole to escape to in the future.

Kate continues "People always need rentals for all sorts of reasons and this created pent-up demand during this period.

The result is that a lot of properties have been let 'off market' and that demand continues today - demand is outstripping supply."

So the early signs of recovery are positive. Kate's sales colleagues at Lodestone have also been very busy since lockdown so they are all cautiously optimistic about the housing market moving forward.

If you are thinking of letting your property, please email Kate at: kate@lodestoneproperty or call her on 01749 605088

www.lodestoneproperty.co.uk