The average advertised rent outside of the capital has reached a record high of £1,316 per month, Rightmove reveals.
This figure tops the previous record high set for average advertised rent outside of London in Q1 this year when it stood at £1,291 per calendar month.
According to Rightmove, the average advertised rent in London was £2,652 per month.
The property website said the record high advertised rent figure means rents outside London are 7% higher than the same period last year.
However, it added that there is a slowing in annual rent growth which peaked at 12% around two years ago. But, the annual rent growth increase is significantly higher than the “normal level” of 2% per year seen pre-pandemic.
Rightmove said the imbalance between supply and demand was one of the key drivers behind the rise in advertised rents.
It suggested that around 120,000 more rental properties are needed to achieve a more sustainable rent increase based on current demand.
The largest increases in advertised rents compared to the prior year were in North East at 11%, (£894 per month), West Midlands at 10%, taking the sum to £1,180 per month, and Scotland at 9% with monthly rent pegged at £1,067.
The lowest regional advertised rent increases were in Wales at 4%, with monthly rents coming to £1,065, London at 4% and the South East at 6%. The average monthly rent for the latter was £1,836.
The report revealed that a 15% fall in the number of tenants looking to move to London and a 16% jump in available properties to rent in the capital meant it had the “biggest overall improvement” in supply and demand.
Government initiatives
Rightmove is calling on the next Government to “streamline the planning process, accelerate housebuilding, and provide incentives for landlords to invest in more homes for tenants, to improve the supply and demand imbalance in the rental market and ensure that growth in rental prices is sustainable”.
Tim Bannister, Rightmove’s property expert, said: “We’ve been talking about the imbalance between supply and demand in the rental market for a long time now, so it’s easy to forget that there was a time before the pandemic where rental price growth was more stable.
“Double-digit yearly rent increases were not sustainable, and, while there has been some improvement in the ratio between supply and demand, price growth at +7% suggest we are still out of balance.
“The next Government should be prioritising an improvement to the planning process, an acceleration of housebuilding, and encouraging more supply into the rental market.”
This article first appeared in YourMoney.com’s sister title, Mortgage Solutions.
