UK rents increase

Rents on new tenancies rose across most parts of the UK over the three months to January, led by gains in the South East of England and the East Midlands, but growth continued to slow in the capital, new figures show. Fresh data from the latest HomeLet Rental Index reveals that rent prices for new tenancies in Greater London increased by 6.2 per cent in the three months to January 2016 compared to the corresponding period in 2015, marking the slowest rate of growth seen in Greater London since March 2014. “It’s notable that there has been a further fall in the rate at which average rents in the Greater London area are rising. In recent years, the capital has seen much faster rates of increase than the rest of the country, but it may be that an affordability ceiling has now been reached in London,” said Martin Totty (left), Barbon Insurance Group’s Chief Executive Officer. In contrast, rent prices in other regions continue to increase steadily with the South East of England and the East Midlands witnessing the highest rent price rises in the three months to January 2016, at 7.2 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively. In…