Rents paid by private tenants across the UK are falling in real terms, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.
According to the data, private rents rose by 1.2% in the 12 months to June of this year.
The National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) points out that this increase remains well below all measurements of inflation with the smallest increase, CPI including housing costs, being 2.4%.
Private rents grew by 1.1% in England, 1.5% in Wales and 1.2% in Scotland.
Regionally, whilst the East and West Midlands saw the highest annual growth in private rents at 2.4%, London saw the lowest, with rents falling in actual terms by 0.1% or 2.5% in real terms.
The real terms fall in rents comes despite concerns about the demand for rental housing outstripping supply.
Recent data from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) has pointed to rents increasing by 3% over the next year as a result of the demand for homes to rent exceeding supply.
Ben Beadle, chief executive of the NRLA, commented: “The figures burst the myth that landlords are hiking rents by as much as possible and demonstrate that market forces are the biggest influence on rent levels. It is clear also that the trend of renters moving out of the capital in response to the pandemic continues.
“That said, demand for privately rent homes continues to outstrip supply and without further efforts to meet that demand, rents will continue to rise.
“The government needs a strategy that properly recognises the importance of a thriving private rented sector in which tenants have genuine choices over where they rent.”
Comments (12)
I think all private landlords want to make a living but most are not greedy. I think we all want tenants who pay the rent, don’t smash the place up and stay for long tenancies. We don’t increase rents for at least the first couple of years or so and then only by inflation afterwards. All our tenants are paying below market rent. We have an empty house that once refurbished will be let at whatever the going rate is and the cycle will repeat. Refurbishing a house even after a good tenant can cost £500+doing it yourself, then there are tenant finding and reference fees etc. and a nagging doubt about how good the new tenant will turn out to be. So we like them to stay. The properties meanwhile have well paid for themselves in rent and are appreciating in value for the day when we will eventually have to sell up.
Desperate shortage of properties to rent here in Christchurch means lots chasing each property that becomes available. Rents up at least 10% and no sign of the market changing. Well done shelter your hard work to drive landlords away has worked but if anyone at shelter had any knowledge of basic economics they would know the effect that their efforts would have had. Clearly nobody with any basic skills at shelter!
But Jeremy, you don’t need to understand economics when Government and others just give you money. The poor public think shelter provides shelter! of course it doesn’t.
They are primarily a Training and Debt advice.
They have the contract to supervise the Debt Respite ( Breathing Space ) Regulations and only represent the 5 % of Rogue tenants ( to the detriment of the majority who play by the rules and ‘pay their way ‘ )
Apparently one of the things Shelter does do (which I approve of) is provided Tenants with information on controlling or stopping mildew, basic repairs that are the responsibility of the Tenant, and advice on looking after the property. One of the only things I approve of with them, in the general sense. I suspect that they were initially created to help those being penalised and harassed by rogue and bad Landlords, but they have forgotten that ‘bad’ and ‘landlord’ are not synonyms…
Pity Shelter don’t call out Social and Council Housing
The amount of times I see people on social media going on about how their housing association has left them for weeks/months with no heating or something, and I remember the time I had a tenant going apesh!t at me because I couldn’t get someone out to do her heating that afternoon, and apparently pointing out that they had an electric shower in 2 bathrooms, and electric fire in the living room and that if they popped out to get an electric heater and sent me the receipt, we would reimburse them was “unacceptable”. I saw someone today complaining because her hot tap in the bath doesn’t work, and the soonest they said they could get a plumber out was mid-August. Can you imagine the headlines in local press if that was one of my managed properties?
PRS properties are held to a higher standard that social/HA properties, and yet we (and our clients) are the ones vilified..
The Renters Coalition represents Only 5 % of Rogue tenants, at the expense of the vast majority. What they campaign for adversely affects genuine tenants ( if only they could see it )
The ongoing and progressive attacks on Landlords is driving some from the rental market. The increasing sales will be part of previously rented property being sold as landlords leave. Result will be less rental property available which equates to rent rises, which is unlikely to be filled by schemes such as the John Lewis Partnership proposals. Ability to pay/afford rent increases will limit rental increases. The result will be an even larger pool of tenants needing financial support or needing social housing. The changes coming such as abolition of S21 will make this much worse as Landlords who choose to stay are becoming progressively more carefuly to whom they will let to, as evicting bad tenants will become even more prolonged and expensive due to the conservative’s blue tape (used to be called red tape!). Maluka has pointed out that policies of certain parties have been adopted by the Government to purchases tenant votes. I guess all one can say is it would have been even worse had one of the other political parties had gained power.
It is pleasing to note that Shelter, Generation Rent etc are getting exactly what they asked for, fewer more professional landlords demanding higher rents. Long may it continue.
Absolutely right. They don’t see that with a large “professional” landlord a tenant is just a number on a spreadsheet a “battery hen” that they have no regard for or empathy with. They will always seek to maximise rents to pay high salaries and to give shareholders a return. If you can’t pay they have their own legal teams that specialise in evicting you double quick
This won’t be the case when their next set of stats are announced.
Between 5% and 10% increases are much more likely due to shortages in stock.