Average private rent prices have surged again in the UK, reaching record heights, with yearly rental growth in hotspot areas including Reading and Coventry running at nearly 20%.
UK Rents Hit Record Highs
Figures from the renowned property website Rightmove show that the average advertised rent costs outside the capital hiked to a record £1291 a month in the first quarter of 2024, which represents an 8.5% surge compared to last year.
The standard London rent also climbed to a record high, reaching £2,633, with average rent prices 5.3% higher than a year earlier. The yearly rental growth has decreased significantly since summer 2022, when it surged to 16.1%.
The overall data conceals wide regional variations, with prices rising higher than the national average costs in certain areas.
Walton-on-Thames in Surrey continues to dominate the market, with yearly rental growth reaching 34.6%, according to Rightmove, while Coventry and Reading's readings show 19.5% and 19.1%, each.
Other regions displaying 17% and 19% growth include Bootle in Merseyside, Hertford in Hertfordshire, Southampton, Watford in Hertfordshire, and Paisley in Renfrewshire.
UK Rental Market Adjusts as Landlords Respond to Affordability Concerns
While standard advertised private rents for new houses joining the market are continuing to reach record heights, the overall rental rate is continuing to decrease amid proof that tenant affordability is currently “severely tested,” as specified by Rightmove.
It was evident that more landlords were obliged to cut the initially advertised rent in order to reach the affordability level of their local market.
Nearly a third of the major “top-of-the-ladder” properties, counting four-bedroom detached houses and all those with more than five bedrooms, were seeing their advertised rents fall.
Rightmove stated that while the slowing rent rate growth was welcomed by tenants, the private rental market was still very busy.
It anticipated that nearly 50,000 rental properties were necessary just to go back to pre-pandemic rates.
The current rent hikes have been blamed on demand outdistancing supply and aggravated by landlords with buy-to-let properties trying to go along with the big increases in their prices that higher interest rates have caused.
Tim Bannister, the website’s director of property science, stated: “The rental market is no longer at peak boiling point, but it remains at a very hot simmer. Looking at data across the whole market, we can see some slow improvements for tenants, with more choice, and competition with other tenants slowly starting to ease.”
