London often dominates the news when the rental market is being discussed but as with property prices, rents vary from one region to another and so do the trends.
Download my full rental summary for September 2014
Here’s a summary of what’s happening in the various UK regions, according to the main indices:-
Acadata/LSL “Rents in seven out of ten regions of England & Wales are higher than a year ago. This is led by the South West, where rents are up 3.5% on an annual basis, followed by the South East at 3.4%, and the North West with a 3.3% annual rise. London was not in the top three, with annual rent rises of only 3.0%.
“Rents in the North East are in fact 1.6% lower than a year ago, while the West Midlands and Wales experienced annual falls of 0.4% and 0.1% respectively.
“On a monthly basis rents in the North East have by contrast matched London, with both seeing a 1.5% increase in rents since July. Only rents in the South East and the South West of England grew faster on a monthly basis, up 1.7% from July.
“In total, three regions are now seeing lower rents than in July. Alongside annual falls, rents in Wales and the West Midlands are lower on a monthly basis by 0.3% and 0.5%. However, the fastest monthly dip was in the East Midlands with rents down 1.1%. (Aug 14)”
Homelet “Average rents dropped by 1.7% in the North East and 0.8% in the East Midlands, when compared to last year. All other regions saw an increase in average rental values, compared to last year, particularly Greater London (11.4%) and East Anglia (8.4%). (Aug 14)”
Download my full rental summary for September 2014
Here's what Spareroom are saying about regional room rents:-
SpareRoom “In August, the average UK rent was £563, up from £546 last month. The highest rents for the month were seen in Central London (£905) and some of the lowest in Halifax (£290). In London, rents ranged from £460 per month in Abbey Wood to £640 in Wimbledon up to £1031 in Chelsea.
“In terms of change, we’ve seen significant rent increases in Southend-on-Sea (7.9%), Stafford (6.3%), Belfast (6.3%) and Bournemouth (5.3%) in the last three months. In contrast, rents have fallen in Swansea (2.2%), Bolton (4.6%), Luton (-4.7%) and Aylesbury (-4.8%).
“The Rental Index also shows particularly strong rental demand in Basingstoke, Dunstable, Inverness and Leicester. Areas with a healthy demand include Hereford, Middlesbrough and Preston. (Aug 14)”
Download my full rental summary for September 2014
Kate's comments on Regional Rent Variations:
“The regional rents show the danger of Labour’s rent cap policy. If rents had risen in line with inflation since 2008, they would be over 20% higher now than they were. The reality is rents are just 7% higher. Based on the information about, rents would be rising in areas where they would otherwise have fallen. It’s good to interfere in markets which don’t work, but why interfere in a market when it would mean so much higher rents for tenants?”
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