Fees Ban: no evidence it’s hit room rental costs, says PropTech chief

A co-founder of a room rental PropTech service says there’s no clear evidence yet that the fees ban introduced in April has led to increased charges.

Tom Gatzen of Ideal Flatmate - which earlier this week was the subject of speculation about company redundancies - says: “It’s still not clear as to whether the ban on tenant fees has led to a notable increase in rents and if it has, this certainly hasn’t trickled through to the nation’s renters yet.

“On the whole, we’re seeing lower rates of rental growth quarter to quarter than we did earlier in the year, but with changes to the tenant fees only impacting new tenancies or renewals, we could be yet to see the widespread surge in rental costs that many are expecting.

“While there have been some large uplifts across the nation’s more prominent cities and London’s peripheral boroughs, this increase is more likely to have been driven by tenant demand more than any other factor.”

His remarks come after the release of his company’s latest data on room rental prices in parts of the UK.

The latest index shows that the average room rental cost across the UK is £584, up one per cent in the third quarter of the year; unsurprisingly London is the most expensive location, with an average room rent of £813.

Aberdeen is the most affordable UK city in which to rent a room - an average cost of £268 per month - while large rises have been seen in Nottingham and Bristol.