Friends, Family, Food, and a Refresh at Easter

Louise, Eddie and Katie • Your Home Managed • South London

Easter weekend has been and gone – and what a lovely weekend it was! Was it just us, or did you get the sense that people let go of just a little bit of tension? Perhaps even more so over the last couple of days after the weekend break. Nevertheless, the weekend did feel like it brought a slightly slower pace to everything; the feeling that, just for a change, it was entirely acceptable to stop for a moment and breathe.

That was how it felt for us and, we are sure, for many across South London. And for a small, close-knit team like ours, weekends like these are something to appreciate.

A Gentler Schedule – But We Never Switch Off Entirely

As a South London lettings and property management business, Easter is often the point where we see the market begin to shift into spring.

But we, like anyone else, also need time with family and time to recharge – so how do we balance those two things – the needs of the business, with a need to let the team wind down for a few days?

One of the things that makes Your Home Managed a little different is that we don’t operate from a traditional high street office, which means we don’t have to decide whether to shut the shop on Bank Holidays!

It’s a model that works incredibly well for us as a dedicated lettings and property management business – lean, flexible, and always connected to our clients.

What does that mean over a bank holiday? Well, there may have been no office to lock up, but equally, there is no question of simply going dark.

Property management, for one thing, doesn’t wait for time, tide, or an Easter weekend. If a tenant springs a leak, a Bank Holiday doesn’t make water any less wet. So of course, cover was in place, as it always is.

In fact, at least one of us spent time at work every day – even if that was working from home. But we were able to reduce the hours and give ourselves a well-earned break. It was enough to keep everything ticking: rent flowing, maintenance arranged and overseen, and the usual practical things that always seem to find a way of cropping up. An electrician to organise here, and yes – a plumber to book in there!

It is the kind of work that is never glamorous, maybe, but it always matters to the landlords and tenants we look after.

But the wider world does slow down over Easter, and that in turn means things naturally go a bit quiet at our end too. Which meant that, outside those few hours a day on the job, we actually all had space and time to switch off and properly enjoy the weekend. That kind of balance – clients looked after and the team well-rested – is what we aim for.

A Weekend Well Spent

The beauty of a long weekend in London is that you can choose to rest and recharge, or you can equally find a million things to go and do!

For Louise, it was the former – a great time to rest up and reset, especially as we are setting up for the busy Spring lettings market here in South.

For Eddie and Katie, two highlights of the weekend… both it seems revolving around great food!

On Saturday, April 4, they visited a pop-up Chinese-Jamaican fusion restaurant in Deptford, put on by a friend of theirs, Luke Diboll, along with his fellow chef, Cat Poon. They already run the successful Jazu cocktail lounge and restaurant, also in SE8, so, from everything we already knew, it promised to be something a little bit special.

It did not disappoint. Spectacular, actually. We all already know it, but it’s this kind of evening that reminds you how brilliant this city’s food scene is – it is inventive, unpretentious, and genuinely exciting – and not least because London is, after all, a melting pot of cultures, and that feeds into our cuisine.

Sadly, the 4th was the last day of the Pop-Up’s run – so head down to Jazu on Deptford High Street instead, or keep an eye on what Luke and Cat do next. You can follow them on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DWFHAKKDLln/.

On Easter Sunday, as if Saturday night’s treat wasn’t enough, it was off to Castelo Restaurant on Norwood Road in Tulse Hill – a Portuguese restaurant that has been a neighbourhood institution for years, and with good reason. If you haven’t been, the Picanha is out of this world! Eddie is Portuguese himself, so this is a recommendation from the horse’s mouth – and an enthusiastic one!

South London at Easter

Of course, it wasn’t just us making the most of it. South London does Easter well. And of course, it isn’t just Easter. South London’s Jewish community have been celebrating Passover at the same time, and our Muslim community celebrated Eid just a couple of weeks before Easter, too.

And of course, those who don’t necessarily celebrate a religious holiday still make the most of Bank Holidays, where the pace of things can slow down, and we get time to recharge our batteries.

And that is the thing about South London. It is diverse, and it is busy and it is exciting, always with something to go out and do. We are lucky to be based in a part of the city that has real energy, real community, and a food and culture scene that can hold its own with anywhere.

Easter weekend showed that off rather nicely – but it is really just a timely reminder; this city never switches off, and it’s why we love to be Londoners.

Looking Ahead: The South London Lettings Market This Spring

Easter is a useful point in the year for us, as it tends to herald that period of time in the lettings market when activity really ramps up.

And with the Renters Rights Act set to enter its first phase of implementation in just a few weeks, on May 1, it is important to be fully on our game to ensure our landlords experience the transition with as little friction as possible. In fact, we have been working tirelessly to update contracts and put other systems in place so our landlords can enter the next few months free from any worries about this change in legislation.

And the market is busy already.

The average rent across South West London is now just under £1,950 per month for flats and just under £2,300 per month for houses, according to data from Dataloft, with over 118,000 households renting. Take the top 10%, and these rent figures rise to £3,480 and £5,923 per month, respectively.

Average gross yields are now at 5.18% - having risen every single month since April 2025, when they stood at 4.78%.

This is a sign of a strong rental market for landlords who operate here.

Spring consistently brings renewed activity to the lettings market – tenants looking to move in warmer months (who wants to lug things about in the wind and rain?), get moved and settled before summer, landlords moving ahead with maintenance and refurbishment projects they couldn’t tackle over the winter, and a general uptick in enquiries.

This year, we are even busier, with many more landlords who, up till now, have ‘done it themselves’, now coming to us to ask about full property management in order to remove the headache that the Renters’ Rights Act could otherwise bring – especially when there is so much at stake for inadvertently putting a foot wrong.

If you have questions about the Renters’ Rights Act, it is worth checking out our Your Home Managed Guide to the Renters’ Rights Act – for free! Find it here: YHM Renters Rights Act Guide 2026.pdf

And if you have a property that needs managing, or you’re thinking about letting for the first time, now is a very good time to have that conversation.

Ready When You Are

We hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend – or Passover, or a wonderful Eid recently, or simply a good Bank Holiday break, whether it meant a family lunch, a long walk, a brilliant meal somewhere special, or simply a proper rest.

If spring has you thinking about your investment property or portfolio, whether you’re a landlord looking for better management, or you’re considering letting your home for the first time, then we’d love to hear from you.

We’re a small, dedicated, hands-on team, and that is a deliberate choice: it means every client gets looked after properly, every time.

Happy Easter.