Regional rents close the gap on London

Private rents in London are rising at their slowest rate for two years, the HomeLet Rental Index reports, prompting questions over whether tenants are close to reaching an affordability ceiling in the capital. The average new tenancy monthly rent in London signed over the three months to January 2016 was £1,510, HomeLet’s data shows, 6.2 per cent higher than in the same period 12 months ago; the slowest rate of rental inflation seen since March 2014. Rents in other areas have increased more quickly. Across the South-East (excluding London), rents on new tenancies rose by 7.2 per cent over this period. In the East Midlands, rents rose by 6.8 per cent. The slower rental inflation in the capital means the gap between the rate of increase in the capital and in the rest of the UK, where rent rises averaged 5.5 per cent over the three months, has narrowed to just 0.7 percentage points, the smallest gap since last April. In October, when London rents were rising at 7.5 per cent a year, this gap stood at four per cent. This convergence between London and the rest of the UK may suggest that the much faster rental inflation seen in…