Average rent hits £830 pcm in England and Wales, says letting agency

The average rental property was let for £830 a month in November according to Your Move - that means the average rents have risen 3.9 per cent in the preceding year.

On a regional basis, rents increased in nine of the 10 regions surveyed during the past 12 months with only the South West seeing a small decline in rents.

London remains by far the most expensive place to rent a property in England and Wales, although it was the South East where rents rose faster than anywhere else in the previous year - up 13.6 per cent to £875 per month. 

The rental market in Wales is also strong with 6.2 per cent growth in the last year. Properties in Wales now attract £584 per calendar month, slightly down on the £591 recorded in October. 

The North East has also seen rents rise faster than the national average increasing by 4.2 per cent year-on-year to reach £542 although this still remains the cheapest place to rent a property in the country, slightly cheaper than Yorkshire and the Humber where rents average £564. 

Just one region saw rents decrease on a yearly basis – the South West. Properties here attracted an average of £663 a year ago and this has fallen to £656 in this survey. 

This is scarcely half the rent in London, which reached £1,295 in November, up 1.9 per cent compared to the same point in 2015 but virtually static month-on-month. 

Across the whole of England and Wales the average rent stood at £830 in November 2016. At the same point in 2015 this figure stood at £799. 

Yesterday we reported similar trends - although different figures - in a rental market assessment from LandBay.