Rents nudged up between November and December last year, while tenant arrears also increased.
Data from Your Move shows that rents increased 0.1% between November and December in England and Wales and were up 1.8% year-on-year to average £865 per month.
The strongest growth came in the south-west of England where average rents were up 4.1% to £702.
Average rents did however fall annually in two regions.
They dropped by 1.4% in the east of England to £881 per month, and fell by 0.8% in London to £1,263, which remains the most expensive region for renting.
Its data showed that 10.5% of all tenancies ended December in arrears of some kind.
This is up from the 8.1% recorded in November, but the agent said the spike is to be expected due to the festive period and is still below the all-time high of 14.6% in February 2010.
Martyn Alderton, national lettings director at Your Move, said: “While the rental market tends to wind down as we reach the end of the year, there were still some positive advancements this year, with prices rising in all but two regions.
“While landlords in most areas saw their yields squeezed in 2018, there was good news as returns held firm between November and December.
“Tenant arrears have spiked compared to November, but this often occurs at this time of year.”
Comments (5)
The haters constantly tell me that rents cannot possibly rise any further and that the govt attacks won’t negatively affect tenants and that landlords never ever supply rent below market value. If this is so, how is it possible that my rents have gone up substantially – over 20% – in the last two and a half years? My money’s on the fact that they won’t stop there either!
Rents rising ? – no sh*t Dick Tracy !
almost every Govt policy has caused increases in rents for Tenants, because govt simply don’t understand business. Impact business costs and consumer prices rise. Whether it be Sec 24 MIRAS, Licensing, actually REMOVING 177 k units of accommodation through minimum room sizes.
Govt aren’t in least bit interested in the number of Private sector tenants that Owe, PRIVATE Landlords money. ( despite the heartache that this causes landlords customers.
177 k units lost through minimum room sizes, who but this present government could implement such a policy in the middle of a housing crisis? My son, whilst at university, deliberately chose the smallest room in the HMO because it was the cheapest. He reasoned that he cooked in the kitchen, ate in the dining room-***-lounge and only slept in his room so in this case size did not matter. The unsaid bit was that he spent a good deal of his leisure time in the student bar – but you don’t tell your parents that.
Leave the free market alone, it will find its own level playing field as it does with everything in life.
Where do the figures come from? If this is just lazy reporting using data from places like Rightmove then it is wide of the mark! We have seen asking prices down from a year ago but rents to existing tenants are rising at about 4 – 6% as landlords start to feel the effect of the rising costs of their businesses. All of our tenancies now “build in” an annual increment, something that we have not done until 2 years ago.