The number of letting agents reporting tenant rent increases has fallen for the first time this year.

According to August’s ARLA private rented sector report, supply has also fallen back to levels seen in June, following a spike in July.

The average ARLA agent had 178 properties in August, compared to 189 in July.

This is despite the number of house hunters in the rented sector increasing marginally in August. Letting agents reported an average of 36 prospective tenants registered per branch, compared to 35 in July.

In terms of rents, just three in ten (33%) agents reported evidence of rent increases in the private sector month-on-month in August.

The 33% of agents who saw evidence of rent increases in August was down on the 37% reported in July.

However, the news is not so good for tenants in the South-West where two out of every five agents (42%) saw rent prices hiked, up four percentage points from last month.

This compares with only 12% of agents in the North-West who have witnessed a rent increase.

Tenants are also worse off in Wales, where the number of landlords putting rents up has increased threefold from July. This month 36% of letting agents in Wales saw increases, up 25% from July when just 11% of agents reported rent hikes.

In the capital, the number of properties available to rent continued to fall in August, pushing demand for housing even higher in London and putting further pressure on house-hunters.

With 110 properties registered per branch, compared to 117 in July, the task of finding a property in the capital’s rental sector is becoming increasingly difficult.

ARLA managing director David Cox said: “Our findings this month are good news for the majority of tenants, as less are experiencing rent hikes.

“However, a third of agents are still seeing landlords pushing rents up, which reflects the sorry state of affairs in the market.

“With increasing pressure on the dwindling supply of housing, and the number of house-hunters growing, rent increases are unfortunately very common – as one in three tenants are experiencing.

“Despite the fact they have fallen this month, it is likely they will go back up again over the next few months.”