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Rents rise further

Rents continued to increase across many parts of the UK last month, but dropped in London.

PROPERTYdrum

Rents in the residential property market continued to increase in February as tenants across the UK paid an average of £81 more per month than a year ago, the latest figures released by HomeLet show.

The average UK rent in February reached £899 a month, up £10 compared to January, and £81 higher, or 9.9 per cent, than the corresponding month in 2014.

But while rental prices rose across many parts of the UK, led by gains the North East and the South West, the research shows that they actually dropped by 2.5 per cent month-on-month in London where the housing market is cooling, adding to the narrowing gap between rents in the capital and the rest of the UK.

martin_totty_barbon_insuran“2014 saw the London rental market outstrip the rest of the UK in terms of rent price growth but what we are seeing so far in 2015 is the private rental market becoming much more broad-based with the strongest rent price growth occurring outside of the capital,” said Martin Totty, Chief Executive of Barbon Insurance Group, of which HomeLet is a part.

Despite the market slowdown, tenants in London still paid the most expensive rent at £1,390, up 5.1 per cent year-on-year, while those in the North East, despite a 3.1 per cent quarterly increase, paid the lowest rent at £550. Excluding London, rents rose to £724 in February from £704 the previous month.

HomeLet reports that rents increased in seven out of twelve regions across the UK in the three months to the end of February, with gains led by Northern Ireland, up 7.2 per cent, the North East, + 6.2 per cent, the South West, + 4.5 per cent, and East Anglia, + 3.7 per cent.

The greatest rental price fall was recorded in Scotland, down 8.4 per cent month-on-month, followed by the East Midlands, – 3.6 per cent, Wales, -2.6 per cent, and London, – 2.5 per cent.

But the rental market slowdown in some parts of the country could be short-lived, especially in London, according to Mr Totty, largely due to the supply-demand imbalance in the level of properties in the private rental sector.

He added, “A recent survey we conducted with London letting agents has shown that demand for private rental property remains high and still outstrips supply, with 80 per cent of agents saying there are more tenants than properties available.”

homelet_graph

 

March 25, 2015

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