Private rents in the UK are rising at a record pace, a study found, jumping 14% in a year in London and more than 19% in hotspots like Manchester, putting even more pressure on already tight household budgets.
The average advertised rent outside London is 10.8% higher than a year ago as tenants struggle with “the most competitive rental market ever registered”, the real estate website Rightmove said.
This is the first time that the average annual growth outside the capital has exceeded 10%, increasing the average rent to a record £ 1088 per month – compared to £ 982 a year ago.
In London, which was temporarily at the mercy of tenants earlier in the pandemic, the average rent demanded reached a record £ 2,193 a month – 14.3% more or £ 274 from a year earlier. Rightmove said it was “the biggest annual jump in any region since the recordings began.”
The real estate site said demand far exceeded supply, with potential tenants outperforming available rental properties by more than three to one.
This is blamed on a number of factors, some related to the pandemic, with many tenants continuing to re-evaluate what they want from a home and how close they have to live to work. Rightmove said it has also heard from agents and landlords that tenants are signing longer leases, which is preventing some of the stocks that normally return to the market from doing so.
Rising house prices mean many potential homebuyers have had to stay in rented accommodation longer, while many landlords, who were initially attracted by the rental boom, have raised rents or left the market in recent years. due to regulatory and tax changes.
Overall, average rents are now 15% higher than in the same period two years ago, just when the pandemic began. The hikes coincide with higher energy bills and other living expenses.
The website listed a number of rental hotspots, with Swansea in South Wales topping the table with a 19.7% annual increase in typical rental requirements. Manchester was far behind, with an increase of 19.3%, the average monthly rent rose from £ 894 to £ 1,067 in one year. Liverpool was another hotspot with a 17.1% annual increase. Others include Margate in Kent (18.8%), Grantham in Lincolnshire (14.6%) and Cardiff (14.5%).
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The figures come a day after a report by an influential committee of MPs said that more than one in eight private rental homes in England posed a serious threat to human health and safety.
Approximately 11 million people are employed privately in England, and the sector has doubled in the last 20 years.
Separately, the National Statistics Office published data showing that average house prices in the UK rose by 10.9% in the 12 months to February, from 10.2% in the year to January. This raised the typical price to £ 277,000 – about £ 27,000 higher than a year earlier.
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