London & Stamford is back in the game as renters flock to Highbury

Demand for flats at former Arsenal home Highbury is booming as young professionals and Gunners fans rent rather than buy homes at the redeveloped football stadium.

London & Stamford, the property firm which bought 146 apartments in the North Stand for £41.4 million at the end of September, today said it has already let 59 of the flats.

That represents nearly eight a week, compared with the five a week the firm expected when it made the acquisition.

It came as London & Stamford, which is run by property veterans Raymond Mould and Patrick Vaughan and also owns offices in London and a share of the Meadowhall shopping centre in Sheffield, swung back into the black.

It reported first-half profits of £15.9 million against a loss of £1.9 million in the same period last year. Net asset value, a key measure of performance, rose 2% to 104.3p a share.

However, Mould warned the recovery in the property market was far from secure as rents continued to fall despite a recent rise in values.

"There are tentative signs of recovery in the economy and in retail sales and the central London office market," he said. "We remain cautious in the face of the most difficult occupier market in my memory and pending evidence of a real and sustainable recovery."

The Gulf-backed firm has a war chest of £290 million to spend on property but director Martin McGann said "it would be crazy to chuck money around" while prices are rising.