Tenant fees ban has had no effect claims SpareRoom
Company says rents for the 300,000 properties advertised on its site have barely increased since the fees ban was introduced.
Rental platform SpareRoom says the tenant fees ban has not increased rents in the UK as the industry predicted it would after June 1st when the legislation went live.
The company’s Rental Index covering the three months following the ban points to rents rising by only 1% year-on-year to £600 a month per property.
This contradicts research published by ARLA last week that revealed 63% of its member agents have seen landlords putting up rents.
“Despite repeated warnings that the tenancy fees ban would drive rents up, so far that’s not been the case,” says SpareRoom director Matt Hutchinson (left).
“Even with July, August and September being the busiest months for new tenancies we haven’t seen a significant bump in rents.”
SpareRoom says the information used to create its index is taken from the 300,000 properties advertised to rent on its website, which includes whole homes offered for rent by lettings agents as well as SpareRoom’s bread-and-butter single-room rentals.
But SpareRoom’s index also shows that there are several hotspots for rent rises where the fees ban may have had a hand.
These include London where they have increased by 4% over the past three months. Three areas of the capital have seen particularly significant growth recently including North Finchley (+10%), Camberwell (+7%) and Lee (+7%) which are all in the top 10 postcode districts where rents have risen the most.
Read more about the tenant fees ban.
