Average rent up only 1.5 pr cent in past year says The DPS

The average UK rent increased just £11.55 or 1.51 per cent over the last year according to The Deposit Protection Service.

The new DPS Rent Index is based on a database of rent levels across the UK over the last 10 years, and its figures show that between the third quarters of 2016 and 2017, average UK rent increased to £775.13: its slowest rate of increase for five years.

The DPS’ figures also show that the rate in which rents increased was slower when compared to inflation than in any other year since the Global Financial Crisis between the third quarters of 2008-2009, and that rents increased more slowly than inflation (by 1.19 per cent) for the first time since 2013 (when it was 0.46 per cent slower).

“This post-Brexit increase is the smallest witnessed since 2012 and comes after three years of particularly high growth, suggesting the influence of other macroeconomic factors such as housing, employment and inflation" says Julian Foster, managing director at The DPS.

“While we are still some distance from seeing the roughly three per cent fall that came with the last Financial Crisis, the change over the last year identified by the Index represents a significant shift for the market” he continues.

The new Index shows that the rise in average UK rent was significantly smaller than the previous year (£21.92 or 2.96 per cent between the third quarters of 2015 and 2016) as well as the previous two years (£25.83 or 3.75 per cent between the third quarters of 2013 and 2014 and £27.56 or 3.8 per cent % between the third quarters of 2014 and 2015).

The DPS’ historic figures also show that average UK rent is now £157.69 (21.55 per cent) more expensive than a decade ago, and represents 32.59 per cent of median monthly salary (£2,378.07).

This is a slight decrease on the previous year (by 0.16 per cent), but the ratio remains higher than at any other time over the previous 10 years, and is 1.54 per cent higher than it was 10 years ago.