Rents fall in London for the first time in almost eight years

Rents on new tenancies in London fell by 1.2 per cent over the past 12 months to April - the first such fall since December 2009 - while rents across the whole of the UK have risen 0.4 per cent in the same period.

April’s rental price inflation means renters signing up to a new tenancy last month agreed to pay an average rent of £904 across the whole UK, or £754 stripping out the Greater London region. In London itself, the average monthly rent now stands at £1,519.

The latest data from HomeLet shows that this negative growth in the capital, along with a marginal decline in the wider south east England region, pushed rental price inflation down across the country as a whole.

Rents on new tenancies signed across the UK during April were on average just 0.4% higher than in the same month in 2016 – the lowest figure recorded since February 2010.

HomeLet’s regional data is now available in more detail via an online interactive infographic.

HomeLet data reveals that the areas of the country where rents are rising more quickly are those that experienced less rapid rental price inflation during the first half of 2016, when prices in regions such as London, the south east and East Anglia spiked sharply. 

In Wales, for example, rents were 2.2 per cent higher in April compared to the same month of last year.

Commenting on the research, HomeLet’s chief executive officer, Martin Totty says: “Rents have been rising at a more modest pace across the whole of the UK in recent months, with lower levels of rental price inflation and even falling rents in areas of the country where prices were previously rising most quickly. We continue to see landlords’ and letting agents weighing tenant affordability considerations very seriously.”