伦敦奥运会引发天价房租

随着2017年奥运会的到来，伦敦富人区梅菲尔的一套7居室住宅挂出43.3万英镑/月的天价。该住宅占地有三个半网球场大，共三层，室内有游泳池、电影院等。除月租外还可周租，租金为10万英镑。根据英国房屋租赁网站的统计，除了骑士桥区的一套6居室住宅也是一样的周租价格，梅菲尔区的这套住宅目前为止租价最高。预计今年奥运会将有1100万参赛运动员粉丝、媒体、企业客户前来参观，伦敦业主须增加6倍供应量才能满足租赁需求。根据去年的调查，如果伦敦1/3的业主考虑出租房屋，整个奥运期间的租赁市场规模将达3.14亿英镑。伦敦豪宅市场受到海外投资者的追捧迅速升温，在2009年3月至去年12月，豪宅价格大涨39.5%。

A seven-bedroom house in London's upmarket Mayfair district will likely set a British record rent of 433,000 pounds per month as landlords cash in on demand for space during this summer's Olympic Games.

The house has a floor space equivalent to three and a half tennis courts spread over three floors and includes a swimming pool, cinema and seven bathrooms. It can be also rented for 100,000 pounds a week.

In addition to a six-bedroom flat near the Harrods store in Knightsbridge that is for rent at the same weekly sum, it is the most expensive home on the findaproperty.com website, which displays houses being marketed by major estate agents.

"The figure is unprecedented for an open-market rental," said Jemma Scott, head of residential corporate services at real estate agency Knight Frank. "It is purely due to the Olympics which, as a rule of thumb, will see monthly rents become weekly rents before reverting to normal after the Games."

The house would likely attract interest from overseas individuals in the Far East, Middle East and Russia, she said.

London homeowners are increasing rents by up to six times to meet demand from an estimated 11 million sports fans, media and corporate clients who will come to the city for the world's biggest sporting event this summer.

The total Olympics rental market for flats, apartments or houses could be worth 314 million pounds, based on one in three homeowners considering letting out some or all of their properties, according to a survey by findaproperty.com last year.

The luxury end of London's housing market has been buoyed by demand from overseas investors looking to shield their wealth from the euro zone crisis and Arab spring uprisings. Prices for the best homes rose 39.5 percent between March 2009 and last November, Knight Frank said.

Renting homes was popular among certain wealthy individuals as it provided a greater level of privacy than a hotel, Scott said.