Rental growth up in 2017 with London and Scotland strongest regions

Rental growth across Great Britain picked up in 2017 according to data released today by Countrywide.  

Last year rents rose by an average of 2.4 per cent, an increase from 1.8 per cent in 2016.

The average rent ended the year at £960 per month, up by £23 a month from the start of 2017. 

While rents rose a third faster than they did in 2016, rental growth was still behind that in both 2015 (when it was 3.2 per cent) and 2014 (when it hit 4.9 per cent).  

Last year some 46 per cent of landlords increased the rent when re-letting their home, up from 37 per cent in 2016.

In a reversal of 2016 when London had the slowest rate of rental growth in England, last year it had the fastest, says Countrywide. 

Over the course of 2017 rents in London rose 3.2 per cent, more than reversing the 0.8 per cent fall recorded in 2016.  

Scotland - where rents rose 3.3 per cent - was the only region in Great Britain where rental growth outstripped the capital. 2017 also saw Yorkshire and Humber replace Wales as the sixth most expensive region of Great Britain to rent a home.

“Last year saw the rate of rental growth pick up to get closer to its long-term average.  Most of the rise comes from a pickup in rental growth in London, after falls in 2016.  Rents rose across every region of Great Britain last year, although the north of England saw rents rise at a slower rate than they did in 2016” explains Countrywide’s research director, Johnny Morris.