Here’s why
Rents in London have fallen for the first time on an annualised basis for eight years (since 2009) during April, new data from the HomeLet Rental Index reveals. Meanwhile, across the UK rental price inflation reduced to its lowest level for seven years. Rents in the capital were actually 1.2 per cent lower in April than in the same month of last year, the first time average rents have fallen on an annualised basis since December 2009.
This negative growth in the capital, along with a marginal decline in the wider South-East England region, pushed rental price inflation down across the country as a whole. Rents on new tenancies signed across the UK during April were on average just 0.4 per cent higher than in the same month in 2016 – the lowest figure recorded since February 2010.
April’s rental price inflation means tenants signing up to a new tenancy last month agreed to pay an average rent of £904 a month, or £754 stripping out the Greater London region. In London itself, the average rent now stands at £1,519.
HomeLet’s regional data is now available in more detail via an online interactive *infographic.
HomeLet data reveals that the areas of the country where rents are rising more quickly are those that experienced less rapid rental price inflation during the first half of 2016, when prices in regions such as London, the South-East and East Anglia spiked sharply. In Wales, for example, rents were 2.2 per cent higher in April compared to the same month of last year.
Commenting on the research, HomeLet’s CEO, Martin Totty said: “Rents have been rising at a more modest pace across the whole of the UK in recent months, with lower levels of rental price inflation and even falling rents in areas of the country where prices were previously rising most quickly. We continue to see landlords’ and letting agents weighing tenant affordability considerations very seriously.”
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