New tenancies processed through lettings platform Goodlord may be bucking the trend as the firm’s data suggests rents fell in five out of eight regions in England and Wales last month.
This would appear to go against other data that has been showing rents have been broadly rising across most regions since the tenant fees ban was introduced in June.
Referencing firm HomeLet reported that in July new rents were up 1.7% in the UK, excluding London, and said the only English region where newly agreed rents have gone down is the north east – but by just £1.
However, Goodlord’s analysis found the biggest drop in rents was in the west midlands, down 1.11% on a monthly basis to £711 in July.
Average rents also fell in Wales, London, and the south-east and south-west of England, it claimed.
Rents increased by the most in the north-west of England at 2% between June and July to £750 a month, according to Goodlord.
Tenants in the north east of England and the east midlands also saw an increase.
The highest monthly average rent was in London, at £1,608, which also continues to be the least affordable region for renters in the UK, with an affordability ratio – based on annual income divided by rent – of 3.3.
The analysis also found that the south west of England continues to have the lowest average void periods in the UK, where it took just nine days to fill a property in July.
It took almost three times as long to fill a vacant property in the east midlands in July, where the average void period was 25 days.
Asked why its data was so different to others, a spokesman for Goodlord said: “The data is based on tenancies that have been both signed and executed each month across the UK, which is the most accurate way of tracking rental trends.
“We weight the data to ensure comparative figures month on month are accurate, with the typical sample size being over 4,000 executed tenancies from across the UK.”
This is my experience as well so perhaps Goodlord have their finger on the pulse using fresh data? If this is the trend coupled with the Governments disastrous policy to abolish s21 things could get tough for tenants in the medium to long term.
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Not our experience, both rents and demand here have increased rateably since the TFB but as noted in the article, there are regional differences.
What I don’t understand is why any self respecting letting agent would want to outsource their business to someone like Goodlord in the first place(?) Can someone explain the benefits as I just don’t get it. There are enough parasites in this business – why feed another one? If you can’t do the job without involving a 3rd party, don’t do the job!
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It would depend on the volume you are doing George; we are sometimes processing 30 lets a week and their automation saves me at least one member of staff. In another office where we never get above 10 week we do not use it.
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Maybe you should share the processing with the less busy office and save on expenses I’m with George too parasites miking out business
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a little unfair George, most businesses are a parasite of some description, including you as a letting agent.
Some of my clients use Goodlord, and have found them to be very good in removing the compliance aspect from the application and moving in process. A few of my clients no longer use them. Horses for courses, like most businesses.
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Thanks Darrel, I agree with your comment, ‘most businesses are a parasite of some description, including you as a letting agent’ but a Parasite having a Parasite? no, I still can’t grasp that one. Each to their own of course but for me, not having control of aspects like compliance would give me cause for concern. Likewise, I never understand why property managers outsource control of their client accounts?
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Let Alliance processed 11259 tenancy applications during the month of July, the average rent was £1003.93 per month. During June the average rent on 9993 applications was £890.22. An increase of 12.75%, the most significant monthly increase ever experienced. August so far rents are averaging £942.91 and transactions numbers are significantly increased. Cheers to everyone. Andy
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