Another index suggests rents rose only modestly in 2017

The average rent in England and Wales was £850 in December 2017, an increase of 2.3 per cent in the last 12 months according to Your Move.

Prices in the East of England led the way with the average monthly rent increasing by 3.3 per cent over 2017 to reach £893. It is now the second most expensive place to rent behind London. 

Meanwhile the average rent in London was £1,274 in December, following a 1.4 per cent fall year-on-year. 

The North East becomes the cheapest area to rent in the UK, with the average rent being £534 while on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, the average rent for all of England and Wales in December was £828.

Your Move says the East of England was the real success story of 2017, with rental prices in the region rising faster than anywhere else surveyed. It says this is due to Londoners looking further afield for more affordable homes, plus the buoyancy of the local economy.  

“Cambridgeshire is now a major jobs hub in the region and a number of towns are becoming increasingly popular with tenants migrating away from London” says the agency.

The agency also tracks arrears and says the proportion of households in arrears in December was 12.4 per cent - well above the 8.8 per cent recorded in November but below the all-time high of 14.6 per cent recorded in February 2010, and below the 2017 high of 13.7 per cent seen in July last year. 

Yesterday we reported that HomeLet’s rental index also recorded only modest rises in 2017.