Rental prices increase at fastest rate on record, data suggests

The average rental asking price in the UK has increased at the fastest rate on record, a major property company has found.

Rightmove’s quarterly rental trends tracker has found the average asking price per calendar month is £1,068 outside London and £2,142 inside the capital.

This is a 9.9% rise for the rest of the UK, and a 6.1% jump for London.

The real estate giant also predicted that asking prices will rise by a further 5% this year, as competition between tenants for available properties increased by nearly double the previous year.

The number of available properties is also 51% lower than the same period last year, which has led to properties being filled within only 17 days on average.

The average rental yield, the value of rent you can expect to receive from your property in a year, is at its highest point since 2016 in Great Britain at 5.5%, with the North East and Wales seeing record yields.

Rising rents are outpacing house price increases in all regions except for the East Midlands, South West and South East, Rightmove said.

Wales’ annual asking price for rent increased by 12.7%, followed by the North West which jumped by 12.5% and the South West, rising by 11%.

London hit record annual growth of 10.9%, with asking prices in the capital now 3% higher than before the pandemic started.

The effects are also being felt on a smaller scale, as Pontypool in Monmouthshire, Wales, saw the largest annual increase in asking price of any local area, jumping 20% from £562 per month to £674.

Ascot had an increase of 18.8% while Littlehampton saw a 17.5% rise.

The director of property data for Rightmove, Tim Bannister, said: “Tenant demand continues to be really high entering the new year, meaning the imbalance between supply and demand is set to continue until more choice comes on to the market for tenants, which has led to our prediction of a further 5% increase in average asking rents in 2022.

“Landlords understand the importance of having a good, long-term tenant, and there is a limit to what renters can afford to pay, which will prevent rents rising at the same rate we’ve seen over the past year.”

This rise has reversed a downward trend experienced during lockdowns, when there was an increase in tenants wanting houses with gardens outside cities.

At the end of 2020, London recorded a near-record 6.4% drop in average asking rents, as landlords lowered prices to incentivise renters to stay in their properties.