Rents drop across London

It is becoming much cheaper to rent a home in the UK, according to new findings. 

The latest index published by HomeLet revealed that although rental properties are still more costly than they were a year ago, the increases have been occurring at a much slower rate.

In addition the findings showed the average monthly rent is now £708 outside of London. Last month rental prices dropped in seven out of ten regions in the UK.

Even in regions that previously recorded higher rental growth such as Greater London, the south-east, east-anglia, and the south-west are recording falling prices.

In Greater London for example, rents levied on new tenancies signed in October 2014 were 3.8 per cent lower than they were in September 2014. 

Similarly rent fell by 3.1 per cent in the south-east.

Commenting on the findings,  Martin Totty, chief executive of Barbon Insurance Group, which owns HomeLet, said: "The recent easing in the rental sector mirrors to some extent the autumn cooling of the house purchase market, where house price increases have begun to ease in recent months.

"However, with house prices having previously increased sharply in most parts of the country and little sign of an improvement in credit conditions, the rentals market looks set to continue benefiting from demand from large numbers of people priced out of buying."

Mr Totty added that the figures also showed there were "unexpected pockets of affordability" in some of the major cities across the UK.

Even across London as a whole, rents fell by 3.8 per cent compared to September; taking the average monthly rent to £1,411.

This is in stark contrast to rents across the north-east, which rents rose by 3.8 per cent to £528 and are up 2.3 per cent year-on-year.

In addition the West Midlands saw a rise of 0.6 per cent to £660.

Published 25th November, 2014

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